An Unlikely Hero
by anaris328
Summary: CJ has left a year ago and Dr. Etheridge has come to Johannesburg to provide medical aid to the Poleepkwa. She never expected to be nursing an alien to health in her living room, or being held captive after CJ's inevitable return. OC/OC language/violence
1. Chapter 1

Author's Note: First with the clichéd obligatory: no I did not create District 9. This work is a fan fiction and the characters Melissa Etheridge, James, Emmie, and others are original characters that will only be used for this story.

While I have an idea of how the story will play out I am not certain I will actually write it out from beginning to end. Real life and lack of inspiration can get in the way of things. Whether or not I complete this project I hope you enjoy the read. Please post a review, whether you like it or not.

********

Melissa Etheridge was exhausted. She arrived in Johannesburg from New York only two days ago and just wanted to crash into her bed. Her new apartment was still in boxes, her car was a rental, and at work she and the other new doctor had been shuttled from one site to another, instructed on protocols and classes instructing the new doctors on alien anatomy, alien language and how to treat different ailments. James Elsmann was able to convince her to go out to dinner. She was about to reject him, but he insisted that it was not a date, simply a meal for coworkers to get to know each other better.

"So what did you think of District 9?" James asked Melissa.

She laughed and looked out the restaurant window. The street outside was plunged in darkness, except for the passing cars and the occasional person passing by. "Well, I think it got me a job, which is good. I mean, since the documentary has come out MNU has had to scramble to repair its image. But I found it rather disturbing what it revealed about this company."

"You mean the company you're now working for?" James asked.

Melissa sighed and decided to eat some of her salad while she thought of an answer. "Well, I guess I just believe in justice and compassion, and I think as long as I stick to my convictions I can have a good influence on the company. Not only that it's a great opportunity to be a medical professional working with a completely different species that is equal to us."

Ever since the release of the documentary District 9 MNU had a PR disaster on their hands. The public outrage of medical experimentation forced the company to change policies and come up with a way to appease MNI (check) and government officials or face being shut down. One of the strategies they came up with was to create a medical division to treat and care for the injury and illness of the aliens. While they sometimes allowed doctors to treat the aliens residing in District 9 the care was shoddy. The Doctors did not know how to treat their patients, could only take those requiring the most critical care and were unable to follow up on treatment. With the PR disaster MNU hired doctors worldwide who were fresh out of medical school to do their residency in Johannesburg. They had the new doctors trained in alien specific illness and treatment, and put them under contract to only serve District 9 patients.

"What, you think prawns are equal to humans? How so?"

"Oh my God, are you serious? Is that a serious question?"

"Should I make a case in how they are not equal to us?"

"Well, look at this. They obviously have the capacity for a complex language which we know and understand. This is something that has only been well observed in humans before they arrived. They were on a starship which shows their technological capacity may exceed our own…"

James interrupted her, "but they don't know how to work the thing, which shows that ship could have belonged to someone else. Maybe they were a bunch of pirates trying to take over and they pushed the wrong button that stranded them here."

"I disagree. We know the weapons they sometimes carry and are stockpiled on that ship are activated through a genetic verification. Only their species can use it, which means the weapons are meant for their use. If the weapons are theirs then I don't see why the ship isn't."

"Okay, maybe there is something there, but they don't exhibit any sort of social order. They steal things, murder people, destroy infrastructure, and they don't show any sense of ability to order or produce a leader. I bet if a bunch of humans crash landed on some foreign planet they would set up camp and start looking for shelter, sustenance, water, and would appoint teams and a leader immediately. These guys can't function. They can only take from us and cause mayhem while they're at it. If we weren't providing for them they would have never found a way to support themselves."

"That is probably due to them finding a different evolutionary strategy."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, we come from primates so our society has a natural hierarchy. But since we are very similar to one another we can easily take on different roles. We also place great value on our individuality and compete against one another. The sense of competition creates new ideas and innovation and allows for people to learn and adapt. I think Poleepkwa probably have a hierarchy but a very strict one. If they have a hierarchy where the leaders are a different race from soldiers and soldiers are a different race from laborers and so on and one class gets cut off from another then they won't be able to function properly."

"So you think these guys are a bunch of grunts? Like they're a bunch of soldiers or something?"

"Yes, and without the leadership they don't know how to operate. So they are not inferior, they simply have a different form of organization then we do, and they're paralyzed."

James sighed, "Yeah, to be honest, that's what I'm afraid of. That Christopher Johnson guy left a year ago and I'm wondering who's coming with him when he comes back."

"Isn't he just going to rescue his people and leave?"

"Maybe, but imagine this. His destination is two million light years away and it's going to take him 1.5 years to get there? We can't even get past the moon. Imagine if a US Naval vessel ended up having its engine and electrical grid knocked out and the entire crew ended up stranded on a tropical island with some tribe living on it. Imagine these guys with spears and bows and arrows take our guys as prisoners and hold them for, oh a few years. Sure, they can do it, but once Washington figures it out we can do whatever we want to the island. We could nuke them off the face of the earth if we wanted to and nobody would object. If you recall in District 9 their home world has seven moons. Now, for a life sustaining planet to have that many moons without their gravitational pull tearing it apart means that the planet must be huge. Not only that, they can go to other planets to get whatever resources they need. If one ship can support over a million aliens, there could be between 100 billion and a trillion of them easy. Add advanced military technology to that and you can see what we're in for. If the Prawns want to blow the earth up they will."

Melissa swallowed hard, "I take it that's one reason why you're here."

"I'm hoping when CJ brings in the Calvary they'll choose to be charitable to some people."

"So you're here to play it safe?"

"Yes."

"I took the job offer because the Poleepkwa have been treated wrongly and they need help."

"Well, I commend you for your ethics."

"And while I find your concern sound, the source of motivation is deplorable."

"Well, I think we'll find a way to work past our differences."

"Well, I think I'm done. I expect to keep this relationship professional. Have a good evening."

She paid for her meal silently and then walked to her car. She thought about what a waste of time the dinner had been, and how she should have gone home immediately after work. Lack of sleep decreased job performance she reminded herself, and she thought about how she was going to make certain to go to bed early after work tomorrow. She pulled out of the parking lot and started driving home. She reflected on her revulsion of James and why he chose to take the position as a doctor aiding Poleepkwa. She vowed to not let it affect her work, though she already disliked him. How could he be such a selfish person? To be a doctor she had to go through ten years of school, spending all her time studying the human body, medications, reactions, symptoms, ethics and every aspect relating to the human body in and out. Both her parents were doctors, her mother a psychoanalyst, and her father a general practitioner. They expressed great pride when she announced where she chose to do her residency, and was one of the pioneers in a new field of medicine. A doctor had to be selfless, to put all their care into treating the patient, to be available day and night and to be constantly in the know about new research and treatments. James disgusted her, for he was the embodiment of what a doctor was not.

The drive home was not very far, about twenty minutes. She had driven home tired before and thought little of it, but perhaps her body had endured too much. She kept her window open and kept mindful to remain alert, but the fatigue was beyond her control. She drifted a little, her reaction time growing ever larger. Something leapt in front of her car, and she tried slamming her breaks as hard as possible. Her body was thrown into her seatbelt, her head thrown forward into the safety air bag. Pain surged through her system. Her entire body seemed to ache and pulse as seconds counted by. Then it receded to her neck and face. Then she remembered that she hit something and went out of her car to see what, who it was.

She was able to discern a shape from the headlights, but it took a few moments for it to sink in and for the details to register. About ten feet from the car was a Poleepkwa, lying on the pavement still breathing but quite unconscious. She looked at the dent in her bumper and grew panicked. How much damage did this guy go through? She pulled her car next to where he was laying and she opened the back door. Normal procedure would have been to call the MNU to report it, but she felt that there was more risk in that then taking the matter into her own hands.


	2. Wake Up Call

An Unlikely Hero:

Chapter Two

Author's Notes: One more chapter up for the story, one more round of practice writing. Let's see, I am starting to write this at 6:35pm on April 2nd. And I finish writing this…..

It would be nice if I could write a chapter a week, or something like that but I cannot commit myself to this because real life sets the pace. I'm working five days a week, and going to school full time, so the only time I will have to do anything is on Saturday and that will probably be used for studying or spending time with friends. But I can quit my job in May and start filling my schedule with more important things such as internet time (and writing stories). I also have a very bad wireless connection where I live (sometimes it goes out for days) which can delay publishing time. I hope the writing itself makes up for real life interference, but you be the judge.

*** ***

She put her car into park after she pulled it into the lane next to the injured Poleepkwa. She got out of her car and went around. Once she got to the alien she squatted down next to it and looked at the unconscious alien. She wondered how she was going to get him into the backseat. The problem was not size, because she could fit him into the backseat if she bent his legs. But Poleepkwa were large, often at least seven feet tall and easily over 200 pounds. Melissa was an athlete, a marathon runner, which would make the task easier. However she was only 120 pounds and had lacerations and a whiplashed neck. She looked at the backseat, at the alien lying in the street, and tried to come up with a plan.

She had a plastic crate in the back she had been using to transfer items and documents from one place to another in the past few days and decided that if she could use it as a stool and position the Poleepkwa on it she could then get into the car herself and then pull him up using all the muscle she had until his torso was in. From there she could simply fold his legs in and close the door.

"You know I wouldn't normally suggest for a patient to be unconscious, but it would be really nice if you stayed knocked out for the next few hours."

She got the plastic crate out of her trunk and put it in front of the opened backseat door. She then placed all her mechanical equipment and anything she could place inside the crate and under the car behind the crate so that it would not slip out of place (she hoped). She then looked at the scene and tried to think of a way to put the alien onto the crate. She couldn't bodily lift him onto it, so she wondered if she could get into the car and pull him onto the crate, but all she could see was that she would be shaking the crate out of its unstable foundation. She then decided on a way she could lift him onto the crate and snapped her fingers. She frowned because she would have to get close and personal but there was no other way she could think of that could accomplish the task.

She pulled up the Poleepkwa into a sitting position, "sorry for manhandling you but you aren't moving yourself. I have to get you out of here somehow." She knelt down and put his left arm over her shoulder, and wrapped her right arm around his waist. The skin of his exoskeleton felt hard and knotted, but she expected it to be cold. For some reason she didn't think they would be warm-blooded, nor did she have a sense of what kind of metabolism they had to maintain their body temperature. She should have read the medical text MNU gave her to get a sense of the details, but then again she never thought such a situation would have arisen. _'Okay, get out of medthink.'_ She clasped onto his left hand and tightened her grip around his waist and slowly rose to a crouching position. Her breath came in painful gasps as the arm cut into her neck and she strained her muscles to lift him. She took a step backward, and another, then slowly lowered him onto the crate. She released her grip and let herself fall, her back colliding into the side of the car. She let herself feel the pain lace itself from her neck to her shoulders and along her upper spine for about two minutes. But she had to complete the task, which meant she couldn't rest yet.

She went to the other side of the car and went into the backseat. She placed her left foot in between the backseat and front seat on the door jam to give her leverage in the lift. She then scooted up behind the alien and put her arms under his armpits. _'Isn't this great! Out of the entire class I'm probably now the doctor with the most experience with Poleepkwa!' _She thought sarcastically. She then took a few breaths and pulled him up, pushing back against the car. She strained and almost had him fall for a moment but she pulled him far enough that he was in the car, only his legs dangling out and touching the concrete. _'Okay, now I need to get home fast, and treat him before he wakes up.'_ She put the crate and other materials back in the trunk and then pushed the Poleepkwa's legs into his chest before she shut the door.

As Melissa drove home she kept whispering, "I'm insane, I've lost it. What am I thinking?" But she knew the truth. If she called MNU then he could end up being interrogated, or not treated, imprisoned or suffer some other horrible fate. To willingly comply with such protocol would have haunted her for the rest of her life. But to not follow protocol was also risky. She could lose her job, receive a black mark on her record and that was aside from the unpredictability of the Poleepkwa himself. If he woke up he could panic or go into a rage and disembowel her and set her car or apartment on fire.

She drove the final two miles home and found it much easier to drag him out of the car and into her living room then it was to lift him into the car. She laid him out on the living room floor and pulled out the MNU medical text. The text was an extensive tome of alien anatomy. It was over 1500 pages laid out with colorful maps of alien anatomy and schematics of different systems from exoskeleton to neurological to digestive. Details of each system were given along with possible ailments and symptoms for each system and the best method of treatment they had. The knowledge was the best available, built up over the past 20 years, much of it acquired through experimentation and analysis of cadavers.

She did a visual examination, noting that he was probably over 200 pounds and stood at about seven feet. His exoskeleton was a greenish-blue, and he seemed to be an older individual, perhaps 30 to 50 years old. He was still unconscious and his breathing was labored. Two injuries stood out, one on his right leg, where the exoskeleton was badly cracked and twisted and another crack ran vertically on the left side of his chest. There were other cuts and scrapes, especially along the head but they seemed to not be bad enough to need treatment. She looked through the text to see about what visual diagnostics she could do to check for internal bleeding and other risks associated with accidents. She was grateful to find that nothing seemed to be out of order and then looked at how to treat the cracked skin.

When it came to skeletal anatomy Humans and Poleepkwa were complete opposites. Poleepkwa had an exoskeleton much like an insect where the skin was hard and armor like and the internal muscle and organs were anchored to the skin. The skin acted as the skeleton, and made Poleepkwa difficult to fight because injury was much more difficult to inflict upon them. Humans had interior skeletons, where the organs and muscles were anchored outside them, with some areas of anatomy, such as the ribcage and braincase parts of the skeleton protected the most vulnerable organs.

The Poleepkwa was still bleeding, and needed the wound to be sealed before she could be confident that he would heal properly. She looked at the text for handling wounds and was surprised at the suggestion for handling wounds to the exoskeleton. "Glue?" she murmured. She got out her medical kit and cleaned up the wound. She then used some superglue to seal the wound and some gauze tape to keep it sealed. She then looked at the wound he sustained on his leg. She sighed deeply, it was hopeless. The leg was twisted sharply and the skin was shattered in several places and bleeding heavily. She got the bleeding to stop, cleaned the wound and sealed it, but she didn't see how she could do more than that. Maybe she would have to call MNU. She just graduated from med school and never performed surgery on a live patient before. She did not have the experience, the right equipment or the assistance such a surgery would require.

But that would wait until tomorrow morning. It was already past midnight, and she had to be in class at seven. She called her supervisor and told him she had gotten in a car accident and would be late the next morning because she would have to handle the claim on the car and get another rental. She then called the car rental office to inform them that she hit a large animal on her way home and needed to report the accident. She felt ready to sleep for the next week, but she couldn't with the alien in her living room. He could sneak in and break her neck if she didn't remain diligent. She went into her bathroom and took the shower rod down to use as a weapon, and then she got a chair and set it on the other side of the room to sleep in. While the Poleepkwa were strong if he rushed her and she bashed him in the leg she could probably take him out. She sat in the chair, hugged the shower rod to her chest and fell asleep.

*** ***

He woke up to heavy banging on a door. Where was he? Banging meant the MNU was trying to get to him, and he needed to go the opposite way. Bang! Bang! Bang! He tried to move, to get up and start running but pain seared through his body as he sat up. Where was he? In a human's house! And there was a human on the other side of the room. He was trapped and injured, incapable of running. He got up anyways, he would run as much as he could. He let out a gurgled growl at the human as he tried to find a way out into the open. She backed away a bit but stood her ground, "Stay there!" She said, as she held up a metal rod and a grimace on her face. The banging continued, and started to get louder.

"MELISSA! MELISSA! OPEN THE FUCKING DOOR! IT'S EMMIE!!"

The human went to the door and opened it, "What the hell are you doing? Don't bang like that!"

He saw a sliding door on the wall to the left of the couch and tried to open it.

"The teacher got your call, and we were worried. We tried calling you over and over again and got no answer."

"Okay, that's a good reason to come to my place, but not a reason to bang on my door so hard that the hinges come off!"

"I was worried!"

He tried to open the lock, but there was something else locking it in place. He looked around, trying to find the obstruction.

"Oh no! The rental car company rescheduled!" What was she talking about? The alien wondered.

Melissa looked at her phone and saw the message the car company left, stating that they would not be able to look at her car until 4pm. "Look, I'm fine Emmie. I hit some animal on my way home and I probably have some whiplash which just means I need a bit of rest."

Stupid human! She hit some animal? She hit him! They probably thought all Poleepkwa were just animals. He let out a snort. Maybe he should just break the glass door and escape.

"Man, you should come back to the hospital and get it examined. You could have damaged your collarbone or spinal column." Emmie stepped closer to Melissa, and could see the living room from the doorway. "Can I look at it? We might be able to rule out the bad stuff right here."

"I'll go with you to the hospital. I already missed a lot of class anyways and need to copy someone's notes."

Melissa tried to get Emmie to turn around and go to the door, but Emmie saw something move in the living room. She tried to push through Melissa to get out of the door way to the living room but Melissa blocked her. "Door's that way."

"There's something in your living room." Emmie whispered, "let me see."

"Is a ghost, let's go."

Emmie tried to push Melissa out of the way, but Melissa pushed back. Emmie then went through the kitchen to get a full view of the living room. Emmie saw the alien and let out a loud, piercing scream that seemed to shake the entire apartment.


	3. Things get Complicated

Chapter 3

Things get Complicated…

Author's Note: Well, since I've posted my last chapter I've learned two things: stress and dejection. I remember once watching an interview Christopher Hitchings did and the world famous author said that often if he didn't get complemented for his work (his book, an article he wrote, an appearance he made, etc.) he would start to feel sulky. Well, I thought that was a rather ridiculous admission, until I posted up my chapter two. I went away from my computer for an hour and then checked my email and felt so dejected when I got no emails from . I thought, oh maybe nobody liked it; maybe I really sucked at writing it (even though feedback was good later on). I guess when you put your work out there you feel really vulnerable to the feedback of your audience.

Another thing is I have been really busy run running around, just with a full to do list every day. People I have to contact, things I have to read, places I have to go, etc. Seriously, the only time I can write this stuff is in the middle of the night. (Look, it's 12:19 am! I have work tomorrow, oh I mean today~) *Sigh* I can't wait until my job is done in May.

*** ***

Emmie took out her cell phone and said, "I'm calling MNU! Let's get out of here!" Emmie grabbed Melissa's arm to lead her outside. Instead Melissa grabbed Emmie's phone.

"What are you doing!? Why are you protecting this guy?"

The Poleepkwa put down the chair he was about to slam though the door. Now he was confused. Did 'Emmie' suggest that 'Melissa' was protecting him from MNU? He couldn't see them through the kitchen wall but he could hear their conversation.

"Yeah, I hit him, that's why I didn't come into work. And if you report this to MNU I'll tell them about your little drug dealing scheme you were running during med school."

"Oh, I'm sorry my family isn't wealthy like yours is." Emmie suddenly gasped, "I'm sorry, I don't mean it like that."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Suddenly Melissa's voice seemed to crack, as though Emmie touched on a deep wound, "Do you think I'm just some rich kid? That I cheated my way though life or something?"

The alien was torn, the back of his mind screaming for him to get the hell out of there, while the rest was confused and intrigued about what was going on. Was this human protecting him? Why? And what were they fighting about? He decided to sit in the chair because he couldn't go anywhere with his injured leg anyways. If he tried to run they would be able to catch him quickly. If he tried to attack them they could take him out. He may as well sit and see what the fuss was with them.

"Melissa, do you know what my parents had to do to get me through med school? About two years ago they couldn't cover tuition and I couldn't cover the dorm costs. The loans ran out too. My parents had their salary reduced severely because of budget cuts. I had to get money somehow. Your parents are the best, but you don't know what it's like to have them suffer for you like my family has."

"Oh my God Emmie! Why didn't you ask for help? You know we would have done whatever we could to help you."

"I owe you guys too much already." Emmie sighed, "Okay, I won't call MNU unless provoked. But I swear if anything happens I'm having leg sandwich! I mean, not really, but there will be one less leg in the world."

Melissa and Emmie entered the living room, the alien jumped out of the chair and then cried in pain when it brushed against the ground. He held a hand up, ready to block the attack. Seconds ticked by…

Emmie snickered. They weren't doing anything, just standing there. The Poleepkwa put his arms down and looked at them in cautious confusion. Emmie snickered again, and Melissa glared at her. While they were both shorter than him, as most humans were, Melissa was a few inches taller than Emmie, and had a slender muscular build. Emmie had long blonde hair held back in a clip, and she was wearing working slacks, and a purple blouse. Melissa had long curly black hair tousled about her head in confusion. "I'm sorry!" Melissa glared at her more, "Look, we aren't going to attack you."Emmie said, "Wait, I think Melissa's glare of Doom is sinking into my heart. Doctor!" Emmie clutched her heart and fell to her knees.

"Oh!" Emmie jumped up on her feet, "We can fix your leg!"

"What?!" Melissa cried.

"I'm sorry, let me introduce us. We are two recently graduated doctors from Cornell University, New York. I'm Dr. Emily Bristiene and she's Dr. Melissa Etheridge. We're doing our residence with MNU for the next five years, and right now we are going through orientation."

The alien seemed to choke when she mentioned MNU.

Melissa took over, "yes, we work for MNU, but Emmie and I joined because we learned what they've done and want to help the Poleepkwa by providing the best medical attention we can. I want to try to change how MNU works, through sincerity and good will, if possible."

"Yeah, and it's an entirely new field so the first ones in get to be pioneers. I anticipate quick promotions." Emmie nodded her head in confidence.

"Oh my God, you are just like James!"

"What do you mean I'm just like James?"

"He's in it for selfish reasons too."

"So?"

"Am I the only doctor that went through medical school for the purpose of helping people?"

"Eh, more like we help others and help ourselves at the same time. Isn't that how society works? Oh, sorry, um, deviation. What do people call you?" Emmie asked the alien.

He clicked a response, but they just looked confused at him.

Melissa sighed and rubbed her forehead, "Poleepkwa language lessons begin next week. So what are we going to do?"

After a pause Emmie said, "Okay, how about this? Melissa, we should get you examined anyways so we'll go to the hospital and get some equipment." 

"Equipment?"

"Okay, Mr. Prawn person, you have three choices: you can leave and have your leg be twisted like that forever, you can let us do the surgery for you, or we can get MNU for you and let them take care of it. So, well, if you want you can leave, it's up to you."

"Emmie!"

"And we should talk on the way Melissa."

Melissa growled on frustration as they walked out.

*** ***

They got into Emmie's car and drove towards the hospital. "Emily! What was that?! We can't do a surgery! We've never done one before!"

"Melissa, there's always a first time, right? You'll have to do your first surgery eventually anyways. And you've always been the best at doing mock surgeries on cadavers anyways. I think we'll be ok."

"Oh, yeah, we'll be ok, but what about the patient? Human cadavers, Emily! I've only worked with _humans_! This guy's anatomy is going to be totally different. Our chances of success are not good."

"Look, if we don't succeed, then he ends up with a bad leg anyways. He's got limited options. Either way only we can help him."

"It's not only we that can help him. I mean, I think maybe we should call MNU. They have resources we don't. They can give him more help than us."

"Melissa, if you want to help him, don't call MNU. Look at this." Emmie handed Melissa her iphone. On the touchpad the file of the Poleepkwa she hit was displayed. "I was given an application that can tap into the records of MNU to look up the Prawn's data files. His name is Alexander Jones, clean record, no marks against him. He's quite a rare one, with the capability of keeping his nose clean. But he's now a fugitive, hasn't been seen for three years. He ran away for some reason."

"Probably didn't want to move to District 10." Melissa shrugged her shoulder.

"This was well before they built District 10. There is probably another reason. Why would someone who keeps his head low suddenly risk his life to run away?"

"Oh, fuck! Are you serious? Oh, this is getting worse! I never should have had dinner with James!"

"You had a date with James? Why didn't you tell me?"

"It wasn't a date! I paid for my dinner, so it was just sharing a meal. And besides all I found out was he's a total jerk."

"Probably found out something superficial. Anyways, yeah, you sensed what I sensed?"

"An egg."

"Bingo, he probably had a kid without a permit and is doing everything he can to keep the kid away from MNU."

Melissa groaned and sank into the car seat.

*** ***

Alexander Jones looked around for something that he could lean on as a crutch. He hopped to where Melissa dropped the shower rod and leaned on it to see if it would support his weight. It collapsed upon itself and was too short to be useful. He couldn't understand what just happened. The only time he had ever interacted with a human was with a gun pointed at his head and commands being shouted out. And now a human was laughing at him when he thought she would hurt him? And Melissa! She took him to her house, treated his wounds and refused to summon the authorities. Was she nuts, or was she overwhelmed with a sense of guilt? He felt a stab of anger. He had seen too many of his friends shot for the smallest reasons. Humans couldn't feel guilt!

Then he felt alarmed. What if they called MNU when they left? What if it was all an elaborate trap? That made perfect sense! Melissa ran him over, giving him a permanent injury that could only be cured through surgery. Then she'll try to gain his trust and then she'll betray him. He didn't know why they had such an elaborate trap but one thing was certain: he had to get out of there, even with his bad leg. But… with his leg the way it was MNU was likely to catch up to him and transfer him to District 10. And then his son would either be left in the wilderness without him, or would be trapped by MNU forever.

It was hopeless! He got separated from his son yesterday, his son wondering off in the middle of the night across the highway. Maybe his son left because he found water, or found something he wanted to show his father. When Alexander realized his son left, waking up alone in the middle of the bush he needed to find him as soon as possible. Alexander had to get across the highway, and he saw the car coming. He thought he had enough time; he thought the driver would slam on his breaks. He was wrong, fatally wrong. Now his son was still missing and his leg was injured. How could he protect his son with such a handicap? How could he go out and find him?

He was given three choices, but there really was only one choice. He would have to trust Melissa and Emmie. He would have to trust those fucking blood thirsty humans.


	4. Miss Muffin's Funeral Part 1

Chapter 4

Miss Muffin's Funeral

Part 1

Author's Note: I decided to write about how Emmie and Melissa met because one of my readers doesn't like her. It's true that characters are modeled after real life people, and Emmie is modeled after my sister. So while she is pushy she is an important character to the story. I am going to see if I can get a chapter out every week or two because it seems there are readers that are waiting to see the next chapter.

And for what is coming up it's going to be really interesting, maybe. Well, it will be a bit more philosophical (and romantic) in a few chapters, but the action will be turned up towards the end when C.J. returns and we find out how his home planet plans on reacting to the policy MNU established for the aliens. There will be explosions. So there is something for everyone, if you aren't of an intellectual bent just wait a bit.

OMG! Cornell has its own organic farm, resource ecology and management lab, an ecotoxicology unit, an orchard, and tons of gardens! I'm so jealous! Heh, but its $20k per semester, whoo!

Oh and WARNING: I'm mean to pets here, so if you love fuzzy things a lot and can't imagine mean things done to them just stop reading after the story of when Emmie and Melissa meet, skip the next chapter, and start on chapter six (which will be up someday) It will be funny too, in a wholesome sort of way.

2006

The day had passed away hours ago and the semester was lagging on somewhere in between midterms and finals. Several students were missing during the late evening class on microbiology, but Melissa remained after class was dismissed to review some points she was fuzzy on during the midterm. As the instructor discussed some detailed points she wrote them down in her notebook which she planned on transferring to her laptop as soon as she got home. After fifteen minutes she felt satisfied with her professor's explanation and she started walking to her dorm. As she walked along the path she noticed something strange, behind one of the bushes several feet away from the concrete path she saw an arm. The arm was such a pale contrast to the foliage around it that Melissa felt an eerie panic rise up her spine. She walked up to the shrub to get a closer look and found a girl lying in the dirt, unconscious.

She was young whoever she was, and a little too lean for her own good. The girl had platinum blonde hair and she looked like she should have been at a club dancing instead of on the ground of the most prestigious universities in the world. Melissa listened for her breathing, which was shallow and raspy. She checked her pulse, which was quick and erratic. Melissa started looking though the girls purse and scattered on the bottom were several bottles of prescriptions.

"911, what is the nature of the emergency?"

"I have a drug overdose case. The patient is unconscious, hyperventilating and has an elevated pulse. She has on her possession Dexedrine, Adderall, Xanax and some other assorted prescriptions"

"Where is she located?"

"In Cornell University in between Caldwell and Warren Hall, just to the right of the path."

"And do you know the name of the patient?"

Melissa dug through the purse and found the wallet of the girl she discovered. "It's Emily Bristiene."

"Okay, we're dispatching an ambulance now. Can you stay with her until arrival?"

"I will."

"They'll be there within five minutes."

Melissa stood on the path so that the ambulance could see her clearly and waited. She kept thinking that it wasn't too late and the medical team would save the young girl's life. There was still time. One thing was obvious which is Emily gained access to prescription drugs and was abusing them, everything else was a mystery. What was she doing there? Was she partying with some frat boys at a fraternity nearby? Was she a student? Did she feel some sort of pressure to perform that made her turn to drugs?

The ambulance arrived and Melissa pointed to where Emily was lying. Melissa asked what hospital they were going to so she could follow them. Melissa was very concerned, and had to make sure the girl was ok before she would be able to get a decent night of sleep. A half an hour later she was at the front desk asking for Emily Bristiene, trying to see if she had been stabilized yet, what her status was and met Emily's parents.

By the next morning Melissa knew the story of Emily's life, and became her honorary guardian. In many ways Emily and Melissa were on the same path: 21 year old college students working to earn an MD license. Emily's parents told Melissa that Emily used to be a problem in middle school, getting into fights, going to parties and making bad grades. But when she was 14 her 19 year old brother got into a car accident and died. He was going to college with the goal of becoming a biology teacher, but he never made it past freshman year. After that Emily's parents had a few problems with curfew, but Emily started getting more involved in school and started making top notch grades. Her parents thought it was to make up for the loss of her brother, and she pushed herself hard to achieve. What they didn't know is that Emily never stopped getting into fights or going to parties but would make sure the school never heard about it and that it did not interfere with her studying. But medical school was burning her out, and she started taking pills to keep up with the other students. She used her knowledge as a medical student to keep accurate track of what she was taking and to not mix medicines, and was able to strike a balance for three years. But the night Melissa found her was indeed the accumulation of years of living without compromise. Emily got careless and mixed her doses, and nearly died.

When Emily's parents talked to Melissa they were impressed. She was just as intense in her studies as Emily was, but was also very compassionate to others and took extra care to rest properly and study efficiently. Melissa had no interest in clubbing or partying with the sororities and was held in high regard by her professors and held the possibility of graduating from med school early. Emily's parents asked her to take care of their daughter and Melissa unwisely agreed to their proposal.

About two weeks later Emmie found Melissa's dorm room and went to thank her for getting her to the hospital. It was Monday evening and Melissa was busy reading her text and rereading it to make sure she absorbed all the relevant points. Melissa was laying on her bed, totally absorbed in her book, idly petting her cat who was lying on her shoulder and back. When Emmie knocked Melissa got up and her cat remained attached on her shoulder as she answered the door.

"Hi, are you Melissa? I got your information from my parents."

"Yeah, do you want to come in?"

"Sure. Is that a cat on your shoulder? Isn't that against dorm rules?"

"This is Miss Muffin, I've had her since I was a freshman. She's good for helping me study, we've studied microbiology together and I swear she knows this stuff as much as I do. Please don't tell anyone."

"Can I pet her?" Emmie started petting the black and brown ragamuffin cat, bringing the cat to purr, and it started kneading Melissa's shoulder. "How do you make her stay on your shoulder?"

"She just does it. I think she likes reading my books with me, or maybe she likes the warmth."

"What's her name?"

"She's a Ragamuffin breed so I named her Miss Muffin. She so loveable she would come to class with me if I didn't have to keep her secret. You want her to borrow your shoulder?" Melissa took Miss Muffin off her shoulder and transferred her to Emmie's shoulder. Miss Muffin crawled up and started rubbing Emmie's cheek with her own. "Oh, she likes you!" Melissa smiled.

"I want one!"

As the weeks went by Emmie and Melissa started hanging out, studying together since they had the same classes and requirements, and somehow Emmie convinced Melissa to go out in between semesters and relax more. Somehow even though they were opposites they complemented each other. Melissa was orderly and serious while Emily was chaotic and pushy, but because they were so different Emmie pushed Melissa to have fun and relax while Melissa's sense of order brought Emmie a sense of thinking ahead more. They ended up becoming best friends as college wore on.

OKAY, IT'S TIME TO STOP READING IF YOU ARE SENSITIVE....OK, I WARNED YOU.....

Alex was hungry, really hungry. He was able to hunt down a boar a few days ago that sustained himself and his son, but since he was ran over and stuck in the human's house he had not eaten. It had been over a day and he felt as though his stomach would fuse to his spine. He started looking around the house for something to eat. Soon he noticed an animal was in there, and he thought it was brilliant. The human must be raising an animal to maturity so she could eat it later! He knew that humans were just clever in some ways. He decided to hunt after the furry four footed creature and eat it. He knew that the humans would be a bit upset, but there would be plenty left over for them too. Besides, she hit him and left him here to starve! The animal let out a hissing sound and ran to the bedroom. Alex limped to the bedroom and knelt down to look under the bed. The little beast scratched his face and zipped past him to the living room.

Alex shut the bedroom door, the bathroom door, and trapped the little nasty bastard in the living room. The beast was huddled behind the entertainment system. Alex took a shower rod and poked it out, and the animal whisked out and hid behind the couch. After several minutes of chase Alex finally got a hold of the creature and snapped its neck.

7pm

"I can't believe I can only walk two miles a day for the next two weeks." Melissa scoffed.

Emmie and Melissa were driving back from the hospital where Melissa was examined for whiplash and finished up the last class for the day. The doctor concluded that nothing was broken, but her muscles could have been torn so he instructed Melissa to reduce her exercise to walking.

They had the materials for the surgery and stopped at a grocery store and got Alex some chicken and beef. They weren't sure what he preferred so they hoped he would be okay with basics. Melissa turned pale at the checkout stand. "Emily, we need to get to my apartment as soon as possible."

"We'll get there soon."

"You forgot.... my cat's in there!"

Emily turned pale.

Alex knew that humans were brilliant, the animal he caught was delicious. Alex was careful to put the fur and bones in the garbage can and put the leftover meat in a plastic bag next to the garbage can so Emmie and Melissa could have some when they got back. He even cleaned up the mess he left from butchering and after eating he felt so full he just went to sleep on the couch.

After a few hours the humans barged in, Melissa started calling out "Miss Muffin". She started making some clicking noises and went to the bedroom. Alex looked around groggily. Emily looked at him and glared, "I hope you didn't eat the cat or Melissa's going to kill you!"

Melissa went back to the living room. "She's not here. Maybe she went outside?" Melissa looked at the garbage can, and then noticed the bag next to it. A puddle of blood was congealing underneath it, and Melissa knew Miss Muffin was dead.

Melissa fainted and fell to the floor. At least she wasn't going to kill him.

End Note: I know I am so evil for doing this, but I thought it would definitely something a Poleepkwa would do and I wanted something that would break down the distrust Alex has against Emmie and Melissa. And it's funny in a twisted sort of way. There are some loose ends from this chapter which will be tied up in Miss Muffin's Funeral Part 2! Now feel free to express how much you hate me for animal cruelty!


	5. Miss Muffin's Funeral Part 2

Chapter 4.5

Miss Muffin's Funeral Part 2

Acceleration

Author's Notes: So sorry about putting the next installment off. I know, I'm a horrible writer. But it's because I'm so busy with classes and it's not going to get any easier. Finals are coming up and after finals there is NO summer break. Nope, not even a day! I zoom right into summer courses which will be learning Japanese, Jazz dance and some classes related to my field. Not only that I volunteer and I run around to see friends every once in a while. It's the way I do life.

This is a philosophical chapter, which I hope you will enjoy. It gives an overarching look at the state of planet Earth with humans running the show. Then in Chapter Five there will be some new characters introduced, some details are learned and it will end with a surprise that will be setting up the conflict of the story. You must read it! Oh, and Chapter 7 is when the core of the story is going to be built up.

He never thought he would see a human in such a pathetic state. A human sobbing on the floor being embraced by another, her body shaking as she gasped between sobs. Emmie was embracing Melissa as she cried for her dead cat. Alexander Jones, A.J. was baffled. How can they be so cruel to a species that was superior to them, and yet be in love with a furry piece of meat? Emmie stroked Melissa's hair and whispered kindly in her ear. Every once in a while she glared at him angrily as minutes ticked by. A.J. felt strange about the whole thing. He was trapped there because there was nowhere else he could go with his injured foot, and even now he couldn't leave even though he wanted to. And even though he killed her beloved cat he couldn't bring himself to feel guilty. How would he know that they treasured little animals? How would he know what was considered food and not? Humans were bizarrely inconsistent, how could they even tell what was right and wrong? He had no reason to feel guilty and yet he did, because he killed one of Melissa's best friends.

Minutes ticked by, and as time passed Melissa continued to cry and Emmie kept glaring. He felt remorseful about Miss Muffin and there were two other people amplifying his guilt. They were against him because he did something horrible. But how could they be mad at what he did to their pet when they treated his people so badly? As he watched the two he started getting angry. He was trapped in the apartment, and had no food. He had no idea the cat was anything more than food. And with the way humans treated them how would he know they actually cared about other species? He was fuming. He was just sitting there in their silent accusations. He could tear them apart and flee, but did he need to go that far? He decided he would speak, would turn their accusations of him against them. And if they decided to bring up hostility he would have every reason to simply tear their organs out and watch them gasp like a fish as they died.

'_Hypocrites! Since when did you humans care about any other species outside of your own?' _ His voice was a raspy click.

Emmie looked at him, her eyes narrowed. She told Melissa she would be right back and went to the kitchen and grabbed a notebook. When she returned she said, "Say that again, will you?"

'_All you humans care about is your own species. How can your friend cry over a little animal?'_

Emmie started scribbling on the notebook and began the process of translating. She had to figure out how to organize the clicks coherently and then translate them into English. Ten minutes passed before she got the two sentences in English. "Oh my god this is going to be a pain in the ass to learn," she muttered. Once she was done translating she reacted unexpectedly. She snorted and shook her head.

"All you humans care about is your own species. How can your friend cry over a little animal?" She repeated. She held the paper up and said, "This is one of the biggest fallacies I've ever heard. A fallacy is an error of reasoning. Basically you've taken your own experience and the experience of your species and have blown it up to conclude that's what we do to all species. This little conclusion is so fucking off the mark I don't know where to begin. Uh, vegans are people that won't use or consume anything higher than a plant. South Africa has set aside over 11% of its land to biodiversity, and the US has 3.5% of its land in park systems for preservation. The freakin' UK has made cephalopods honorary vertebrates, granting them certain rights in the process, and let's not even start on smart animals like chimps and dolphins. People really do care about other species, like oaks. California has some very strong laws protecting Oaks from being taken down during construction. So, you're wrong about people, but I'll tell you where you're right. "

Emmie took a sigh and started in her case against entities such as MNU, "While people care about other species corporations don't. Corporations are institutions that only care about maximizing how much money they get while minimizing how much money they spend. MNU is doing whatever they can to try to figure out how to make alien weapons work so they can sell the technology to other companies and nations. British Plutonium has that huge oil spill that went from the Gulf of Mexico all the way up to Europe, and then there is the World Trade Organization that gets whole nations in debt and forces nations to give up their resources. Corporations have put a price tag on everything in existence, and has made greed a virtue. They should be…."

Melissa started laughing, "Emmie, please stop! You've gone from my poor cat to global economics!"

A.J. was simply lost by Emmie. What was biodiversity? Or … cephalopods? And what was an evil corporation? Though they really sounded evil if they could make slaves out of nations.

"But am I right? You have the oil companies, the pharmaceutical companies, large agriculture, large retail, corporate media, fast food, and those companies that hire workers at 15 cents an hour."

"Don't tell me you still think the solution is socialism."

"I don't think taxing them is socialism."

"No, taxing them isn't enough; they need to just be dismantled."

"Yes, you need to internalize the externalities they cause and that's done by hitting them with taxes. Rape them with taxes. Restore all regulatory powers that fucking Reagan took out, put up tariffs, and strip them of 14th amendment rights."

"You totally miss the point. It should be laissez faire capitalism. Corporations need to be stripped of all government protections and dismantled and the market should be free to operate itself with no protection or regulation from government."

"So you want to go back to early 19th century economics with its boom and bust cycles? Fine. How do you propose competing with China and India since they will certainly be keeping the more stable corporate model?"

"India and China rely on us for their economic growth. If we restructure our markets they have to fall in line."

"Oh, yeah? Well, China can call in the debts they're holding on us. What do you say about that?"

"We liquidize all the capital the corporations possess and pay off our debts."

"UGHHH! Stop dodging! Oh… we still have to fix AJ's foot."

AJ was lost back at the cephalopods and couldn't understand what they were arguing about. But the way Emmie reacted was unexpected. He thought she would get angry, and he wanted her to, but all she did was say he was wrong. If humans really did care about other species why were Poleepkwa treated so badly? Was it just because MNU wanted more money?

"Okay, Emmie, shut up and let me sum this up. Okay, look, this world has 6.8 billion humans, and is projected to reach 9 billion by 2050. What everyone really wants is a comfortable life where they can provide for themselves and their family and perhaps find a meaning to pursue. But there are so many people and there are 192 nations and only so much land to grow food on, so many fish to catch and there are powerful regions such as North America and Europe and growing regions such as India and China that want to keep all of the Earth's resources for themselves. We are growing in population, and need land, we are growing in demand for energy, for water, for housing and because we simply don't know the best way to manage resources and are in competition over resources we have ended up poisoning our water and land, depleting our food supply, drying out our energy supplies and ripping apart mountainsides to gain access to coal and metals. Frankly mankind is trying to progress, trying to better ourselves, and we really do care. We just really don't know what we're doing."

Then Emmie took over, "we have a billion people starving, okay. There's plenty of people that don't get enough to eat and then a million aliens showed up. Welcome to the chaos of Earth. We're wondering when it's all going to fall apart. So you're wrong."

Silence pervaded the room, the humans reflecting on the sad state of the world with no known solution in sight, and AJ was simply shocked. He really could not understand how humans could have produced such chaos. The Poleepkwa were an ancient race with the knowledge and understanding of sustaining multiple planetary systems indefinitely. Thousands of years before when they were just reaching the point of leaving their planet they reached such progress slowly and wisely, not pushing beyond their means. Why did humans have to accelerate and progress so fast?

Melissa sighed, "Well, we need to get this surgery done, and I want some sleep. I mean, I miss my cat but it really was my fault for neglecting the situation. I didn't explain pets to you and I didn't get you anything to eat. You didn't know any better."

AJ gave up. Whatever he knew about humans was wrong.

OK OK OK, Read and Review!


	6. Relations

Chapter 5

Relations

Author's Notes: Hmm, yes another few weeks flew by. I am finally done with the quarter and get a whole weekend before the new quarter starts. A WHOLE WEEKEND! And then I get to spend summer learning Japanese. Yeah, it will be intense, and I don't think I'll be getting to writing for a while. I'm not just learning Japanese, I'm going to be learning Taiko, dancing, and working on a landscaping project for a local Zen Center. After that I'm going to have a six week break and will be doing a lot less, but will probably write a lot more. I will probably have the next chapter written soon though because I've really been looking forward to writing Chapter 6. It's going to be really funny and it will have a real twist at the close of the chapter. I'll say this: James will be coming over to Melissa's house.

Oh, yes, I also skipped the actual surgery because I have no idea how they are done. You slice and dice and stitch and hopefully everything lines up and stops leaking. But it's ok, the surgery works and AJ wakes up with a caste.

Anyways onto the story….

Paralyzed numbness was all that he could make out. He was aware that he existed, but all his senses felt dull and muted. He was awake, but he wanted to fall back into the numbness, back into dreamless unconsciousness. But something told him to push himself awake, and he commanded a slight movement to make sure he was alive and whole. Suddenly his body felt seared, tense, sore, achy, pained, awashed in fire. After a moment he could feel it radiating from his foot, but it felt different from before. It hurt, everything hurt.

Then he realized there was a dull banging. Did MNU track him down or was it Emmie annoyingly banging on the door again? Memories came flooding back as he recalled the few days. Hit by a car, rescued by a human (or just having the human take responsibility for their actions, still amazing), eating her cat (which he still secretly thought was the most delicious meat he ever tasted) and then realizing the true nature of the world he was stranded on. And then there was the surgery, which he was just waking up from. The banging continued, but it was different from others. It was quieter and quicker, an urgency behind it. AJ sat up, by now the pain was radiating from his injured foot and subsided otherwise. He looked around for something to prop himself against when he found some crutches in the corner. They were already set up for someone with height, and realized Melissa left it there for him. He looked at his foot and saw that it was no longer bent at an odd angle and in a proper cast. He guessed it worked.

He got the crutches and slowly pulled himself up, supporting all his weight on his left leg and then placed his weight on the crutches and hobbled to the front door. The door was still rattling, still being banged. If it was MNU they would have broken the door in by now, and Emmie would have been screaming her lungs out. He looked through the peep hole and saw nothing.

He slowly opened the door, and when there was enough crack for the little grub to fit through he suddenly found something clinging to his leg, his poor, raw, injured leg. He screamed, letting out a primal roar. He suddenly covered his mouth, Melissa had neighbors. He leaned against the wall and wanted to cry. Was that for the cat he ate?

A few clicks came from the child hiding behind the oven. _"Daddy?"_

AJ took a few breaths before he spoke, _"I'm sorry Edwin, you grabbed my hurt foot."_

"_I'm sorry."_

"_Wait a minute; let me sit down before I look at you."_

AJ slowly hobbled to the couch and sat down, setting the crutches down. He didn't like the couch, it was cushy, but so short that he had to bend to fit and couldn't stretch out. Then again all human furniture was like that, a bit too small for comfort. _"Come here, Edwin."_

The little Poleepkwa bounded across the living room right into his father's lap and hugged him tightly. _"Where were you? Why are you in a human house?"_

"_I was in an accident and a human helped me."_

"_But I thought, well, you said all humans were bad."_

"_I meant that MNU humans are bad."_

"_But you said all humans were bad."_

_"I was wrong."_

"_Oh."_ Edwin kept hugging AJ for a few minutes and then whispered, _"I'm hungry."_

"_There is a big metal box in the next room with food in it. Just open it, find some and eat."_

"_But if I go you might disappear again."_

"_Where would I disappear to? I'm right here. When I disappeared last time you ran off without telling me looking for something. As long as you tell me where you go I can look for you."_

Thankfully Melissa bought plenty of meat, and a variety to choose from. Edwin tore two chicken legs off a whole chicken and AJ took half a steak for lunch and they quietly ate it raw on the table. He wondered if Melissa would be mad but didn't give it much thought.

After they got done they threw the scraps in the garbage and then AJ noticed a note on the coffee table. He read it.

"Emmie and I have left to go to class and we should be back at around 7pm. We got plenty of food in the fridge for you. Please clean up after you eat and if you need to go please use the toilet. The surgery was successful and we recommend that you stay on crutches for the next few weeks so it heals properly. You should also do some walking around in the crutches to stretch your muscles and get used to their function. If you get bored while we're gone go ahead and use the computer and TV. Oh, please bury my cat in the backyard when you have the time. We'll put up a proper marker later."

AJ thought for a moment. How was he going to dig a hole with his bad leg? He couldn't think of how to dig a hole with less then all four limbs. A leg to hold the body up, another leg to put weight into the shovel, two arms to lift the dirt out. There was no other way to do it.

As AJ read the note Edwin wondered around the one bedroom apartment. It was very simple, crowded with boxes and furniture. The apartment started with the front door, which lead immediately to every part of the small dwelling. To the right was the bathroom with only the essential toilet, shower and sink. To the left was the kitchen, with the refrigerator right next to the front door, next to the sink, a stove across from the sink and some tables and cupboards to hold supplies. At the end was a small four chair table. And then the kitchen opened up to the living room. The couch against the wall a few feet from the table, a coffee table was in front of the couch and on the other side of the room facing the couch was a plasma TV mounted on the wall. Behind the wall with the TV was Melissa's room which had a bed and a dresser and there was some clothes in the closet. All around there were boxes filled with whatever Melissa brought from wherever she came from. There were no pictures on the wall, no extra furniture, no appliances. Melissa had not yet had the time to unpack, but already the tiny apartment had much more than any slum. The roof wouldn't leak, there was running water, a place to keep food cold, and a cushy place to sleep that was only too small. Despite the cramped couch and the wounds he sustained he had slept better in the past two or three days then he had in months.

AJ sat on the couch looking at the note on the coffee table wondering how he was going to dig a hole with one leg. All he could think is he would have to use both legs and bear the pain of using his bad leg. When Edwin came back he chirped excitedly, "_are we living here? This is really nice!"_ Edwin jumped on the couch and started bouncing on it.

"_I don't know. I don't know what the human is doing. Perhaps we'll be going back to the forest tomorrow, once she knows the foot will heal well."_

Edwin stopped bouncing, disappointed. A few seconds passed and then he chirped,_"I know! They'll think I'm cute and will let us stay. Humans like babies and stuff."_

"_They like baby earth creatures."_

"_Oh."_

AJ struggled to his feet and then walked with his crutches to the sliding glass door. He moved the blinds to get a look at what kind of work he would have to do. For a moment he choked. He clumsily pulled the blinds to one side and opened the glass door. He went outside to make sure he was really seeing it correctly. There was a hole already dug, with a pile of dirt to the right of the hole. It was about three feet deep and a foot in length and width. How late did they stay up? Last night he killed her cat, they argued about … something, everything. Then they did the surgery, which they thankfully knocked him out for. Then they must have dug the hole and done other work before getting any sleep. How long did that all take? And all he had to do was move the cat in the hole and put the dirt on top.

They could have just made him bury the cat, but Melissa took care of everything herself. She just couldn't bear to bury her cat herself. He went back inside the apartment and picked up the bag, and made sure it was lined well enough to not drip any blood. He then placed it in the already dug grave and over the next half hour carefully buried the remains. Once he was done he went back and sat on the couch. It would still be several hours before Melissa and Emmie returned and he didn't know what to do.

He turned on the TV which brought up a brilliant display of static. He looked around and figured out that a DVD player hooked up to the TV, and then he started looking through DVDs Melissa owned to find something to watch. There were TV shows such as Lost, Firefly, and documentaries about economics, politics, human anatomy, evolution, and philosophy. He found something that seemed like something Edwin would like. It was some cartoon called Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex.

He put it in the DVD player and started playing the first episode:

The theme song started playing:

Angeli i demoni kruzhili nado mnoj  
Rassekali ternii i mlechnye puti  
Ne znaet schast'ya tol'ko tot  
Kto ego zova ponyat ne smog

Nalybuites' nalyubuites  
Aeria gloris, Aeria gloris  
Nalybuites' nalyubuites  
Aeria gloris, aeria gloris

I am calling, calling now  
Spirits rise and falling  
S toboi ostatsa dol'she  
Calling, calling, in the depth of longing  
S toboi ostat'sya dol'she

Nalybuites' nalyubuites  
Aeria gloris, aeria gloris  
Nalybuites' nalyubuites  
Aeria gloris, aeria gloris

Stand alone . . . Where was life when it had a meaning . . .  
Stand alone . . . Nothing's real anymore and . . .

Beskoneshnyj beg . . .  
Poka zhiva, ya mogu starat'sya na letu ne upast'  
Ne razuchit'sya mechtat' . . . lyubit' . . .  
. . . Beskoneshnyj beg . . .

Calling, calling, for the place of knowing  
There's more than what can be linked  
Calling, calling now, never will I look away  
For what life has left for me

Yearning, yearning, for what's left of loving  
S toboi ostat'sya dol'she  
Calling, calling now, spirits rise and falling  
S oboi ostat'sya dol'she  
Calling, calling, in the depth of longing  
Soboj ostat'sya dol'she . . .

Nalybuites' nalyubuites  
Aeria gloris, Aeria gloris  
Nalybuites' nalyubuites  
Aeria gloris, aeria glories

It opened with some computer animated scenes and a song with lyrics in English and some strange language he never heard before. It was somewhat pretty and even though the language was weird it captured Edwin's attention. AJ felt very tired and fell asleep to people talking in foreign language. He heard talking, running, shooting, the sound of helicopter blades and he faded into strange dreams.

A few hours later Melissa and Emmie returned from class. AJ stirred from his sleep, slowly lifting himself to a sitting position.

When Emmie saw Edwin watching the TV she gasped, "Oh my God, he's so fucking cute!"

Melissa's head shot down, and she rubbed her forehead lightly. Of course Emmie had to emphasize alien kid cuteness by using a curse word. Melissa watched the series playing on the screen for a few seconds. "Ghost in the Shell, nice choice," she said.

Emmie chimed, "Yeah, if you love cosmic scaled confusion. Five minutes into that shit and I'm lost."

"Oh, you'd love it. This stuff is all about exposing a corporate scandal. And there's plenty of guns and violence. Too bad you can't pay attention to keep up."

"Oh sorry if I like story plots to be coherent."

"You just have to watch and keep track of what's going on."

"You know I normally do that, only problem is this one is too thick."

"What about Neon Genesis?"

"The only thing I could figure out was Shinji's a pussy."

"What did you think of Asuka?"

"She was awesome."

"Hmmm."

"What?"

"She's a psycho bitch and you can identify with her."

"She wasn't psycho. She just gave Shinji a bunch of shit because he pissed her off."

"Okay, Dr. Asuka."

"Hey, I'm a lot cooler then Asuka."

Melissa laughed, "Oh we are lame arguing over anime."

"So, AJ, is this your kid?"

AJ was fully awake by the time their strange fight … or discussion was over and Edwin was hiding behind him. He nodded._"How did you know?"_

Melissa looked at Emmie, "Ok, where's the translator book?"

"Wait, I think he asked how did we know, right?"

AJ nodded.

"Are you already picking up on their language? That means I'll have to study more!"

"No, I just guessed. And the answer is on my iPhone. I got an app from our superior at the hospital. It gives all the information MNU has on the Poleepkwa they have on file. I just used the number on your head." Emmie handed her phone to AJ and AJ looked at it. "Based on the information given we both concluded that since you were a runaway with no prior criminal record you must have gotten an egg."

Melissa asked, "What is your son's name?"

"_Edwin. Emmie, why did you say my son is 'cute'?"_

Melissa looked at Emmie. Emmie sighed, "Fine, I'm getting the translator book. It's in your car, right?"

"It's in the book bag in the back seat."

A few minutes later Emmie returned. AJ repeated his question and Melissa and Emmie thought for a few minutes.

Melissa answered first, "It's basic evolution, actually. Human children take a very long time to develop and without protection from the parent they cannot survive. Babies have the characteristic of big eyes, and a low head to body ratio which adults feel tender affection for. This affection increases a child's chance of survival. Not only that for some reason almost any animal exhibiting juvenile characteristics will be seen as cute and will win the affection of humans. I guess you could include kittens and aliens in that."

Emmie then added, "And to add to that humans can get emotionally attached to anything. Cars, people, scenery, pets, rocks, jewelry, furniture. In fact I found an organization online with people who have actually adopted orphan aliens."

"Really?" Melissa asked.

"Yeah. They find them when they're still eggs or still young and then just grow attached to them and raise them." 

"_Don't they get rid of them once the 'cuteness' wears off?"_

Melissa translated the sentence and then passed the translation to Emmie.

"Nah, once they get emotionally attached they become family, I guess."

"Yeah, to be frank the way MNU treats you guys is not how normal humans are."

"I don't know about that. Any homeless bum can tell you how much apathy he gets."

"I think that would be a little different. I think most people passing by don't think that they can help the homeless guy on the street. Most of them are there because of addiction and mental illness to begin with."

There was a bit more talking, and then Melissa told them what the living arrangement would be like for the next few weeks. "AJ, if you ever want to leave you are free to do so, but you are welcome to stay here until the cast is removed and some physical therapy is done. Until then I'll be staying at Emmie's house and we'll be coming here right after our classes to see how you are doing." Soon after Melissa and Emmie left.

AJ was filled with a sense of strangeness. What was going on? How could he and his kind be so abused for his whole life and then suddenly be treated with such hospitality all of a sudden? He always assumed humans were barbaric, bloodthirsty and greedy, but now he didn't know. Oh, they certainly could be ruthless, but now he saw a totally different side to them through the bad luck of being hit by a kind person. And now, to hear about humans secretly raising orphaned Poleepkwa as their own. How can humans be so cruel and at the same time so kind?

End Notes: Ok, so everyone knows this was written on accident and off the cuff. Chapter 6 should have been Chapter 5, but then Chapter 6 takes place two weeks after Miss Muffin's Funeral and Edwin had to show up before then. And Edwin couldn't just pop up, he kinda had to be explained. And then I just started typing away and it got too long to be Chapter 5 and 6 combined. So if it seems poorly written that's why. I just typed off the top of my head. All character interaction was thought up as I typed. Tell me what you think. Did you like it or should I stay away from impromptu typings?

Oh yeah, and about Ghost in the Shell. I just had to throw in one of my favorite songs "Inner Universe." Look it up on youtube, it's full of awesome!


	7. Visitors Part 1

Chapter 6

Visitors

Part 1

Author's Note: Lookie lookie, a new chapter is up! And it's the one I've been telling you would be the big one. Bad thing is I have to chop it up so it won't drag on forever. So what took me so long to post a new chapter? Japanese class. My summer Japanese class crammed 6 months of material into 6 weeks and I had to cancel two classes, cancel volunteering for a month, skipped taiko, and stopped exercising to study for this class. Yeah, it was that hard. Now I have a six week break and I've discovered that I want to be a writer professionally (hopefully!) and I will be writing a lot more. So part 2 will be going up tomorrow, and there will be three parts total.

I found this while searching for ideas on what Melissa and Emmie would be wearing to the club. I thought this girl (of course she's not really Emmie) would look very similar to how I see Emmie looking.

Emmie picture: .

AJ really didn't know if he loved the apartment or hated it. After being on the run for years the respite was welcomed. Having a roof over his head and plenty of food was relaxing. Not worrying so much about being seen or caught by humans, especially MNU guards, was also welcomed. But there was something not quite satisfying about staying in the apartment day in, day out and having the humans come by only for about an hour or so before they went to Emmie's apartment. He thought that since it was only temporary, he would revel in it. He slept in, played with Edwin and tried to answer all his questions, watched TV, ate as much as he wanted and tried to walk around to keep his frame strong. In the evening Melissa and Emmie would return and talk about different thing, while trying to understand what he was saying. Of course having them flip through their translator book and asking him to say the same word over and over again was frustrating. They were picking up some of the language, but it felt like they were learning at a snail's pace. Then again, when he was young and was in District 9 he had to learn what the guards meant quick. It was the difference from getting shoved around or pistol whipped.

Amazingly Edwin did not only understand English, he was learning to speak it. Sometimes when Melissa and Emmie were trying to understand what AJ said Edwin took up translating in a high pitched, clicking sort of voice.

As the days wore AJ was getting bored. He felt restless, torn between the security of his current situation and his desire to be free outside. But until he could properly run again he was stuck.

Two weeks passed before anything changed, before AJ met his rival. That evening Emmie and Melissa went out to celebrate Melissa's full recovery and ability to run again. Emmie wore a sleeveless black shirt with a collar that wrapped around her neck to the top of her shirt in the front. She wore a ruffled short skirt, three inch heels and dark makeup to stand out in the darkness of the club. Her hair was curled and clipped up, some of her hair falling onto the front of her shoulders. Melissa wore skintight jeans, a purple satin shirt where the sleeves were clipped together, and a zipper in the front. The zipper lifted up to reveal a set of well toned abs. Melissa wore one inch heels that gave her no addition to her height and earned sarcasm from Emmie. They met up with a coworker outside the apartment… his names was James or something.

Later that night AJ was asleep, laying on his left side, his face in the cushion of the couch and his feet hanging over open space. His knees were bent so the couch could accommodate his height. He didn't think much of what the humans were doing. Drinking, music, dancing? It was something he never saw, so it was something he wouldn't have thought about. But at 330 in the morning the after effects of the club came crashing through the door. The door opened with a click of the lock and three people came bursting in. They were talking, yelling, irritation and concern.

"Emmie, how much did you drink?" Melissa asked.

AJ listened and didn't move, he felt annoyed about his sleep being interrupted by the stupid argument or celebration or whatever the humans were doing. Couldn't they be quiet?

"One of you need to pay for the cleaning bill for my car."

Emmie slumped up against the wall and slid to a sitting position. Melissa knelt down. "Emmie, how much did you drink?"

"Um, drank….. drank. A margarita, two beers…"

"And? That won't get you this drunk."

"And? Uh…. An iced tea, and a coke…"

"see? She'll be fine. I gotta go."

"James! I wanted to drive my car since I knew Emmie would be throwing up. You insisted on driving us because you wanted me to be in the front seat."

James grunted, he drove because had Melissa driven in her car he would have been stuck in the back seat.

"Emmie, do you mean a long island iced tea?"

"Yeah, that iced tea, and morgan and coke." She hiccupped and then whimpered. Emmie then started scooting over. "I'm… sick!"

James hoisted her up by an arm and took her to the toilet where she threw up.

Melissa's phone rang. "Fuck!" she opened the phone and said, "hi mother." Melissa went out the front door into the front of the apartment. Her mother, Dr. Amanda Etheridge asked how she was settling in and expressed concern about the charges that were on her credit card from the accident Melissa had in the rental vehicle. Melissa told her she had been very tired from flying, moving, and orientation at work and the sleep deprivation had caught up to her. Amanda expressed concern about her daughter's health and told her to get as much sleep as possible. "I know, I'm getting as much as possible." Melissa assured her. Then Amanda told her that she was enroute to South Africa and her plane would be landing in Johannesburg at 9AM. "Mother, why did you wait until you were on the plane to tell me?"

"Oh, well, I forgot you were in Johannesburg until about halfway into the fight."

"Why are you coming here?"

"Oh, I'm about to retire and I'm thinking about giving voluntary medical aid to Africans. There is a conference this week that I can use to get information and establish contacts with. Could you pick me up and let me stay at your place today until I can book a room for the rest of the week?"

"Yeah… what's the flight number?"

As soon as Melissa hung up her heart rate skyrocketed. Emmie was very drunk and would have a hangover from hell, there was an alien in her living room and her mother was coming over to visit. She needed to pretend that Emmie's apartment was her apartment while her mother was visiting, and that would require clean up and the rearrangement of furniture to convince her, and she only had hours to do it.

Melissa thought… would she need help? Could she ask James to help her? Perhaps she could pull this off on her own. She would have to get Emmie to her place, bring some pictures, comforters and other items and then clean the apartment up until it looked like her own place, and then hope that her mother wouldn't notice. There was a chance that she would notice it was Emmie's apartment since the two families had grown so close over the past five years, but it was likely that she wouldn't bring it up and would just go to her hotel room without even asking. The problem was she had so little time and a lot of cleaning to do. Amanda knew Melissa kept her place impeccably clean and to see the apartment in disarray would instantly signal something was amiss. Melissa needed help but would James go along with it?

Emmie was sitting on the bathroom floor, her head tilted to the side and tears were streaming down her cheek. James knelt down and handed her a piece of tissue to wipe her mouth with. "It feels like all my insides want to come out." James looked at her eyes, took her pulse and debated on taking her to the emergency room. Melissa came back in and James told her he was concerned about Emmie.

"She will be okay as long as she gets a lot of rest." Melissa replied. Melissa paused, wondering how she could gain James' assistance. "James, um, could you do me a big favor?"

"Ask me and I'll think about it."

Dammit, no matter what she's going to have to pay him back! She thought… maybe she could say she was staying at Emmie's house because her apartment was damaged! No, she would have already said that over the phone for that excuse to work. Maybe she could take AJ and Edwin to Emmie's place? No, she couldn't risk them getting sighted. Maybe she could clean it in a few hours… no she couldn't, the scrubbing would take too long.

"Look, my mom is coming in on a plane at 9am. I need to get to Emmie's apartment, clean it and pretend that Emmie's place is my place while she's here."

"Why don't you just bring her here?"

Melissa sighed. She placed her hand on her forehead. She muttered, "There's a Poleepkwa in my living room."

"Huh? What's in your living room?" James looked at the shadowy cavernous space from the lighted hallway they were standing in. He turned on a light that revealed the secret Melissa was muttering about.

"There's a fucking Prawn in your living room!" James jumped back behind Melissa.

AJ had been listening to them whining, arguing and crying for the past few minutes and was waiting for them to leave. He just wanted them to go away, and let him sleep. But when the living room was bathed in incandescent brilliance he jumped up, put full weight on both legs and then started yelling obscenities in his own language.

"Why is there a prawn in your living room!" James yelled.

"I hit him and injured his leg a few weeks ago. I'm keeping him here until he heals."

"Isn't that dangerous?"

"That's why I've been staying at Emmie's for the past few weeks."

"How are his injuries healing?" 

"It will be a few more weeks. Are you going to help me?"

"Why should I not report this?" James folded his arms and looked at Melissa. As he waited his phone started ringing the theme song of Star War's Darth Vader. James groaned and answered it, "How can your loving big brother serve you?" A pause, a muffled voice talking.

"9am? Flight 9370? You owe me dinner!" He laughed and then hung up.

"Who was that?"

"Melissa, my younger sister, the pride of the family."

"Did you say flight 9370?"

"Yeah?"

"My mom's on that fight! Wait, it sounds like there's a bit of friction between your sister and yourself."

"Long story short… my dad is the general in charge of the US army, and my sister is a star pilot in the Air Force. My family has been serving in the military since the Civil War and I've broke the tradition and became a doctor. My father is not so happy with the choice of occupation."

Emmie let out a whine since she was being ignored.

"Your father is the General of the US Army!"

"I want 24 hours."

"HUH?"

"24 hours of your time for me helping your with your deception and not reporting your friend."

"Pervert!"

"Okay, 12. Take it or leave it. I don't have time for you to think about it."

Melissa shivered visibly, but her options were slim. "Fine, help me get Emmie in the car and let's go to her place.

The humans gently picked Emmie up and hauled her out of the apartment. They turned out the lights and let him get back to sleep. He didn't know what just happened, but all AJ wanted was more sleep.

End Notes: James is the son of a general? Oh, that's only the beginning! His sister, Miranda, has some Top Secret secrets that will be revealed in part 3! Oh, and will Melissa be able to fool her mother? Stay tuned! Oh, and I must have reviews! Leave one and tell me how happy you are to see me back!


	8. Visitors Part 2

Chapter 6

Visitors

Part 2

Author's Note: Well, this piece has a bit of prophecy in it. I didn't intend for there to be prophecy, but sometimes these pieces write themselves!

Okay, so here are some details for the next few chapters. Chapter 6 will end next installation with THE kicker. Yeah you're going to have to wait a little more for it. Chapter 7 will start the stage set for what Melissa will be doing for the rest of the story. Chapter 8 will be featuring a totally new story with totally new characters which will be entering the main story well into the future, same with 9. And then Chapter 10 will be featuring Christopher Johnson talking to the leaders of the home world. You will be getting front stage seats to a catastrophic mistake he makes.

So there is something I really, really need feedback on. The next few chapters will be really long, each one. They cover vast spans. Chapter 8 alone will be documenting almost two decades of the lives of the new characters from early childhood to the present. So…. Do you want really long chapters or would you prefer what I did for chapter 6, which is cut it up into parts? Both will take about the same time to write, but with pieces you'll get it quicker. However pieces can be a bit cumbersome and it may seem like it will take forever to get to the end of a chapter. Nah, forget it. I'll just put up the entire chapter after chapter 6 because cutting things up will just confuse me too much. So expect some really long chapters in the future. I hope you enjoy this installment!

Two cars were driven from Melissa's apartment to Emmie's apartment. Melissa thought it would be best to pick up her mother separately from James picking up his sister so no confusion would occur. Melissa did not want to give Amanda the impression that she got a new boyfriend. While James felt no problem with giving Melissa's mother such an impression (something he kept to himself) he did not want Miranda to scrutinize her. When they arrived at the apartment the first task was to change the comforter on the bed. Emmie had a light gray comforter, and preferred lighter colors, while Melissa was drawn to darker ones. The gray was replaced with a rich, purple one and Emmie was allowed to rest on her bed.

Then Melissa and Japes started cleaning. A load of laundry was put in the washer, and Melissa set out to clean the bathroom and instructed James to wash the dishes, sanitize the counters, throw out any expired food in the fridge and sweep and mop the floor. James complained, asking how it could get this bad if they had only recently moved. The answer was they were only in and out so nothing was cleaned, things just piled up.

Melissa asked him what his sister was like and why he abandoned the family profession and hose to become a doctor. He explained that his family expected the children to go through the academy and become officers in the Army. From the civil war on his ancestors, with a few exceptions, always followed this protocol. His father expected both Miranda and James to become officers, and taught them strict discipline. Their rooms were orderly and spotless, their GPA hovered from 3.8 to 4.0 and they were active in ROTC, athletic competitions, debate clubs, and other extracurricular activities. Their destiny was written before they were born.

But one day when James was 17 the course was diverted. That morning James had been late getting up. He stayed up until two studying for the SAT. Even though the practice exam placed him in the upper 1400s he wanted to place higher. He slept through his alarm clock and when he got up he only had a half an hour to get to school. This morning he drove a little less cautiously, a little faster. He had a presentation that made up a quarter of his grade and being late had grave consequences attached to it.

At an intersection a few blocks away from school he was struck by another vehicle. He waited for the green light, impatient as the clock counted down for class to start. The light turned green and James slammed on the gas. As he went through the intersection another driver went through a red light and crashed into the passenger door of James' car. The momentum carried the vehicles several yards, yet James was able to open his door and walk out. He called for an ambulance, he called the cops, he called the school, and his father. He saw that there were people in the car, a man and two children.

In the back he could see a little girl. He couldn't tell if she was pinned or not, but he saw blood running from a gash in her head. He did not know what to do. Crash the window and try to stop the bleeding? She looked five or six, and she suddenly looked at him, and he wondered why she did not scream out in terror. He saw the pain in her face, and he waited. Where was the ambulance? The fire engines? She cried, and swallowed a lump in her throat. He watched as she died, fading as the seconds passed. By the time the ambulance arrived the man was in critical condition and his two girls, 7 and 9 years old were already dead.

The man lost his job three years ago and stayed home, looking for a job while his wife worked. After a year she disappeared, left the country with a man she worked with. He desperately looked for anything that would pay for rent, for food, and ended up with a paper route and a job as a gas station cashier. He worked eight hour shifts during the day and had about 150 deliveries to make every morning working from 1am to 6 or 7 am. He did everything to make sure his kids were provided for. He took them to school between jobs, made sure they were safe afterwards, tried to make sure their diet was healthy and their clothes were clean and new. But after two years that morning he fell asleep while driving them to school. James followed up on the man a year later. He spent a month in the hospital, lost his work, lost his children, and landed over $100,000 in medical bills. A few months after his release from the hospital he jumped off a skyscraper and died.

The little girl hunted James. She was in his dreams, and in the faces of children he saw walking by, their hands in their parents as their parent talked, played and scolded them. He told himself there was nothing he could have done. The light was green, the other driver was asleep, the ambulance took too long. But he thought about his destiny: to protect the interests of the United States by ordering troops to kill people. Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, South America, and undocumented battles kept from the eyes of the citizens. He would be creating more and more corpses, more children bleeding to death in the street. James dropped out of ROTC and began studying for medical school.

Unlike James, who was involved in a tragic accident, Miranda took everything her father taught her to heart. Obedience, loyalty, and discipline were her creeds. Unlike James, Miranda's vision to her destiny never wavered. She had a goal from her childhood, and she went after it relentlessly: to keep her feet off of the ground and to swim in an ocean of air. She did not care who got in her way, or who she would hurt to gain the privilege of getting onto an F-22 to perform whatever her masters, the government, wanted her to do. Her father wanted her to become an Army official, but she kept course to her own goal. Because she kept to her vision, even though she became an Air Force officer instead of an Army officer, she achieved one of the highest accolades in the land: one of the first female pilots to man the F-22, the most advanced human designed aircraft on the planet. Though her father was disappointed at her choice, he felt it was her calling because she excelled at it. She was the pride of the family.

There was something strange going on: the United States Air Force was deploying one of its best pilots to South Africa. The US and South Africa were preparing a buildup of forces in anticipation for the return of Christopher Johnson and forces from his home world. As James explained what was going on Melissa felt her lungs contract, and felt as though she couldn't breathe. No wonder James expected the aliens to be hostile; his own father was drawing up the battle plans for their arrival!

When she woke up she found herself on the couch in the living room. James had finished with the living room and was vacuuming the floor in the bedroom. A third load of laundry was drying and the garbage was stacked high with used paper towels and expired food. Melissa felt juxtaposed, her mind washed with vertigo. She should be cleaning the apartment and getting ready to pick her mother up from the airport, such a thing was difficult enough. But there were alien warships on the way, or there weren't, but humans were preparing for them. What could she do? Could their armies fight against another planet? They were taking a hostile stance when they should be preparing for a diplomatic solution. They couldn't fight a race capable of traveling the vast spaces between galaxies! She felt as though James' father would be ushering the extinction of their species.

James had worked silently while she slept on the couch. The only thing left was to put away the clothes and dishes, take out the garbage and switch out pictures and memorabilia to hopefully convince her mother this was indeed her home. Once the stage was set she and James left for the airport with just enough time left over to greet the visitors at the gate.

James and Melissa arrived at slightly different times, since they both left in separate vehicles. Melissa planned on taking her mother to the apartment to set her things aside and then take her to breakfast. James was going to meet Miranda and the fact that they would be at the same airport picking up relatives at the same time would just be coincidence.

But as she made her way to the baggage carousel she found something truly strange and her hands started trembling in utter shock. Her mother was there and Melissa felt a surge of joy to see her again even though only weeks passed since the last time she saw her. But Amanda was not alone. James was talking to her and a woman who Melissa instantly knew was his sister. So much for keeping things simple. Melissa approached them and as her mother noticed her approach she gasped and said "here she is." Amada embraced her daughter warmly whispering, "My love, good to see you again." Amanda was not a doctor but a healer, someone who did not simply work with symptoms but touched the very soul of her patients and healed them. She was approaching her mid sixties, her hair short and white and hanging in ringlets around her face, but she still radiated an energy that defied the ages.

"Miranda, James, this is my daughter Melissa. Melissa, I met Miranda Elsmann on the plane, she is an amazing pilot working for the military. This is her brother, James, working as a doctor for MNU." Melissa shook their hands, James scrunched up his face in a grimace. They were not just on the same flight but seated next to each other. Someone was just screwing with them.

As Melissa examined Miranda she felt overwhelmed at the figure. Miranda Elsmann had her long blonde hair swept up in a sophisticated bun. She was striking, her bearing was straight and her hazel eyes showed her determination and assurance. As they shook hands it was firm and deliberate. Miranda dressed professionally, she wore a dark knee length jacket intended to protect her from the New York chill. Her pants were grayish white with black heels. "Your mother told me about the amazing work you've taken on as a new residential doctor at MNU. Do you and my brother work together?"

Melissa lied to save some face, "Perhaps we do. Right now we are taking intensive orientation classes to become familiar with the alien anatomy. There are several classes and I am assuming he is in one of the other ones."

Miranda smiled, "I see."

Amanda then said, "It was a pleasure to meet the both of you. We have to leave, but I hope you can join us for dinner tonight. Especially since it looks as though you two are working in the same field."

"Indeed, perhaps we could study in the future as well." Melissa said dryly. Yeah, James would make a great tutor, the thought made her choke.

As they left Melissa's head felt in a whirl. She saw the future and did not like it. Melissa could tell Miranda questioned nothing, and felt her place in the world was as certain as the orbit of the moon. Miranda was unequivocally one of the top fighters Earth had and her place in the future conflict was assured. Would there be a conflict? Was this build up the US was staging a sort of Plan B? Melissa hoped diplomacy would win, but with CJ telling the story it was highly unlikely the Poleepkwa would choose diplomacy as their first response. Miranda was one of the best Earth had, but would that be enough?


	9. Visitors Part 3

Chapter 6

Visitors Part 3

Author's Notes: So here's the final installment of Chapter 6. It took two sessions to write this one, I hope the length is okay with you because the next two chapters will be quite long as well. Sorry it took so long to write, guess I have to come to a certain mood to write. Eh, well next chapter is going to have an exciting beginning and should be an interesting read over all. I wonder how long it will be since it will be chronicling 10 years of the new character's lives. Yes, new character introductions coming up! Tell me what you think!

A black man dressed in a white wife beater and black jeans hanging low on his jeans bristled with power. He was 6'5" and 245 pounds, his skin pulled taunt over the sinew and muscle making up the majority of his weight. He went to a pay phone, and received instructions on where the deal was going down. There was a car already parked for him to drive, the keys hidden under the car. He needed to bring the crack from one side of town to the other and then distribute the product to the various dealers working the neighborhood. If he could pull it off he would be good with the boss, the question is could he do it without getting caught? As soon as he found the car it was a disaster. He needed to back up and merge into regular traffic, but instead he slammed forward and smashed into the wall in front of him, leaving a popped hood and smashed headlights as a clear witness to incompetence. He finally figured out how to go into reverse when someone smashed into him as he was backing out. People start yelling at him as he drives off and cop sirens are heard.

"Maybe you should try stealing another car?"

The man gets out of the car and pulls out a gun from the back of his pants and points it at someone stopped at a red light. He throws the man out of the car and steals it. Then he starts driving and can't stay in between lane lines to save his life. He hits poles, and runs people over. "Is this how driving is like?" The screen turns red and a siren bleeps. Next thing AJ knew he was dead. GAME OVER flashed across the screen.

"_Can I play? I want to play!" _Edwin cried. "Let me try." Edwin was mixing Poleepkwa speech with English, but AJ did not know whether to encourage it or scold him. Melissa and Emmie already encouraged it since that meant they could understand him. Though even then they did not know whether it was good or bad since it inhibited them from learning the Poleepkwa language.

"_No, you are not old enough to play a game like this."_ While AJ enjoyed playing it he wasn't sure if he should either. It felt rather freeing to play a game where he could run people over, take them hostage, shoot them, and strike terror that could never be reciprocated, but he felt at the same time since there were good humans he shouldn't feel good about feeling delighted to kill their pixilated forms. Then something strange happened. Some older woman had unlocked the door, saw him, let out something between a scream and a squeak and slammed it.

"Who was that?" Edwin asked.

"_I don't know! But I will have to talk to Melissa about this!"_ At this rate MNU would be smashing in the door at any moment. Melissa and Emmie were a comfortable presence, helping him while he was injured, but then they revealed his presence to James, a colleague they both worked with. AJ wasn't certain if he did not like James' character or simply did not like any other humans knowing where he was staying but he felt threatened by James. And now some strange woman popped her head in. The next surprise visit would be leaving the door in splinters, AJ thought.

Amanda ran to the taxi and told him to drive back to her hotel as fast as possible. She felt jarred by the discovery she made. On the one hand, she felt proud for her daughter helping another species, but at the same time she had never seen one so closely. It was… alien, simply a life form so completely different from anything she had seen that she could only scream when she saw one mere feet from her. But as the taxi drove her back to the hotel the story came to her quickly. Her daughter lied, she had sensed that from the phone call. She did not hit any animal, she hit an alien. And then when Melissa brought Amanda to the apartment she did a very convincing job at trying to present it as her own place, but the way the furniture was arranged was in a way Melissa would never approve. Some of the pictures hanging on the wall were clearly Emily's as well. Amanda was able to distract Melissa by asking for a cup of tea and found some mail with Melissa's real address.

When Melissa went to school the next day Amanda went to Melissa's real apartment and found a potted plant next to the door. Amanda taught Melissa to put a spare key in a pot under the plant so that in case there was an emergency no matter what she would have a key to her house. Amanda shook the potted plant and removed the plant from the pot and found the key under the plant. Once she had the shock of her lifetime and returned to her hotel room she thought. Of course she did not condemn her daughter for keeping a Poleepkwa in her household, in fact Amanda commended her for it. What she did not understand is that her daughter knew she did not have to lie. Why did she? Amanda decided to talk to Melissa about it, and also ask Melissa to introduce her patient.

The four of them had started a sort of daily routine, where Melissa and Emmie would go to school in the morning and study until about six, would go to the grocery store, go to Melissa's apartment and cook dinner. The Poleepkwa, being carnivores, would have some sort of meet either raw or lightly cooked and the humans had a balanced meal of meat and vegetables, fruit and starch. Then they would practice conversation where the poleepkwa would instruct the humans on the details of their language. Then they would clean up and Melissa and Emmie would review the material covered in class until about 11 or 12 and then they would leave for Emmie's apartment to sleep.

Melissa felt quite happy that day, since she was able to start her morning off with a five mile jog. Emmie and Melissa where progressing rapidly in their classes, especially in language, and that day were able to clear up some misunderstandings they had about the respiratory systems. They went shopping for some groceries, and since Melissa was in such a good mood she opted to buy some steaks. However, when they got home they found an angry alien. AJ screamed about how they were endangering the life of his child, how their indiscretion would alert the MNU and how Melissa's carelessness with her vehicle had trapped him in her dwelling. He was at their mercy and she was letting strange people into her house.

Melissa started to apologize but could only understand some of what he was saying. Then he started to get violent. He threw the table into a wall. And then smashed his fist into one of the cabinets, breaking the dishes inside. Emmie let out a scream, Melissa took a protective stance in front of Emmie. "CALM DOWN AJ!" Banging on the wall started. "WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON OVER THERE!"

Seconds passed and then banging started on the front door, "OPEN UP IMMEDIATELY OR I'M CALLING THE COPS!" Melissa gestured for Edwin and AJ to go into her bedroom and shut the door. The next door neighbor, a man in his mid forties, erupted, "What the fuck is going on? I've been hearing some weird sounds since you moved in. And now you're going to bring the whole building down? You have a lot of explaining to do!"

Melissa sighed, "uh, we had a huge accident in the kitchen. My friend is a klutz and dropped a bunch of dishes on the floor. She also screamed when she dropped them."

"Ok, what about the weird talking, it's like you're speaking with aliens. Do I need to call MNU?"

"Actually, we work for MNU. What you've been hearing is us learning their native language so that we can best serve our clientele."

"Serve prawns? What are you talking about?"

"Sir, we mean provide medical care for the Poleepkwa, because I, as a doctor, believe that all patients should receive the best care possible. In fact, I believe that MNU is trying to serve the poleepkwa better by hiring physicians such as myself that truly feel compassion for our visitors."

"Uh…ok. I respect that, I do. Think you can keep it down from now on?"

"I will do my best, sir. Thank you."

The door was closed. Emmie clung to Melissa and started sobbing; Melissa drew all her weight into the wall, holding onto it for dear life, as she started to feel dizzy from what just took place. The phone rang. A soft jazz buzzed… it was her mother. Melissa let herself slide to the floor and answered the phone.

AJ sat on the bed, wondering what he just did. He had gone berserk, he felt that his child's life was in danger and almost attacked Melissa and Emmie, and they saved him again. But did they really save him, or was he simply at risk again? He opened the door and listened to Melissa talking on the phone, "I understand now. Yes, I'm sorry for lying to you…. It's just …. Who I work for you know, they can't know about this. I could lose everything if I was caught. Yes, please come over."

"AJ, let's talk…"

Emmie and Melissa sat on the couch. Edwin went and sat upon Melissa's lap as she started talking. AJ stood there, realizing that, with one wrong move he would be locked up, and Edwin would be placed in a one meter by one meter crate until he reached maturity. "I realize you're upset about seeing a stranger come in here, but you must realize that was no stranger to me. That woman you saw is my mother. I did everything possible to make sure she couldn't find out about you or this apartment or this situation. But she is my mother, she can tell when things are off, she can tell when I'm lying, and she knew that I was hiding something when I picked her up from the airport. That's why she came here, because she knew that something was wrong. Look, she's coming over because she's worried. Please know that she is one of the best people on earth, and please …. I don't know…. don't freak out."

Emmie burst out, "No! She shouldn't come. In fact we should just leave and let them fend for themselves! They waste so much of our time."

Melissa asked, "Is it a waste of your time to come here?"

"Oh, what the fuck ever, but you shouldn't let mom risk her safety to see this. Let's just go."

Emmie got off the couch and was heading to the door.

AJ spoke, _"I'll make it easier for everyone. I'll leave. I'll leave Edwin in your care and fend for myself."_

"YOU TWO, SHUT THE FUCK UP!" Melissa screamed. "AJ, would you just relax, meet my mother and decide what to do after that. Can you do that? And Emmie, just keep quiet."

There was a knock on the door. Melissa opened it, and let Amanda in. "My dear, what happened, your shaking!" Melissa started sobbing, and Amanda held her close. "What happened?" Amanda looked at the kitchen. The cupboard collapsed to the floor, and there was broken glass everywhere. The table made an indent into the wall. Emmie was on the couch with her knees to her chin, her arms hugging her legs.

Melissa said curtly, "he freaked out and went on a rampage because you came here earlier and he doesn't know you. The only reason he calmed down was because the neighbor threatened to call the cops."

"Is that his child, Emmie? I believe he could have reacted so violently because he felt his safety and the safety of his child were threatened."

Emmie exploded in rage, "How the fuck can you excuse this? Amanda, he was going to ATTACK us! If the guy next door didn't threaten to call the police where would we be now? Would our entrails be decorating the ceiling?" She stared at AJ in a deathly gaze, "If this is a common trait for your species then there is no mystery why you cannot be accepted, be integrated into human society. I'm getting the fuck out of here. Melissa, I'm going to seriously consider withdrawing from this residency and going back to California." Emmie grabbed her back and went for the door.

"Emmie, wait…" Melissa called.

"Melissa, I'm a doctor, not some martyr. I'm not here to die for my patient. This…" she waved at the destroyed kitchen, "is insanity." Emmie slammed the door.

Melissa's jaw tightened, "I want you out. Get out of my house or I will call the authorities." She pronounced coldly.

"Melissa, please think more deeply on this situation."

"Mom, Emily's right! What is there to think about? I came here to help an ailing and misunderstood species. I hit him, and I have done everything possible to fix that. I've risked my job, I've paid for food, I've let him have my apartment, and I've been checking up every day to make sure everything is well. This has cost me time, money and I've risked my livelihood and reputation. If you think you can solve this it's your problem. I can't take this anymore!" Melissa went in her room and put on some running shoes.

As she went to the door Amanda asked where she was going.

"I'm going to run to Emmie's."

"At this time of night?"

"I need air." Melissa slung a bag over her shoulder and went outside. She just didn't care anymore. She would have normally stretched but she felt the need to just move. Her system felt overloaded with anxiety, anger, adrenaline, panic, despair and she started moving. Melissa had been running since she was a junior in high school and as the years passed she grew more and more passionate about it. Every year she did a marathon, and her training was intimately ingrained in her daily schedule. The accident took a lot away from her, including her running and she felt light and full now that she could return to her routine.

Melissa was frightened of the sky. In order to get onto the plane to get to South Africa her and Emmie had to plan something that could knock her system out. Emmie was an expert on medications so she gave Melissa a set of tranquilizers that could knock her out once she was in the cabin. Melissa insisted that it was not a fear of heights, it was having a high respect for gravity. And perhaps it had something to do with her personality, for Melissa was a very caring, but also a very practical person. She did not try to establish a connection with people, as her mother did, and instead did whatever action she could to help those who needed it. Whether it was connecting desperate people with the right contacts or researching someone's legal rights or referring them to the right agency or giving them items that they needed Melissa constantly went out of her way for others, but she remained grounded. Perhaps that is why she placed so high on marathons.

Melissa's mind felt tight and knotted, her head starting to pound from muscles and teeth clenching. Thoughts flowed and her imagination raced. Her feet pounded against the concrete and her breath came in easy gasps. She easily crossed a mile, and a second. Her strides were wide and steady and as the miles went past her mind began to ease. As she reached eight miles a slight fatigue set in, and she felt euphoric. She decided she would simply stay away from her apartment, and let her mother handle it. She felt a bit guilty and feared for her mother's safety but if anyone could solve it, Amanda could.

Over an hour passed, and she was nearing Emmie's house. She was past eleven miles by the time she reached her destination and knocked on the door. Emmie answered it, "What took you so long. You ran here?" Emmie noticed Melissa's Nikes.

"I'm leaving it to my mom. It's her life and if she wants to sacrifice it that's on her. Are you really going to transfer?"

"I've already been working on getting a residency at Oakland Children's Hospital. After that I don't think I can work with aliens."

Melissa came in and sat down at the kitchen table. Emmie sat down as well, "what about you, are you going to stay in the program? Whatever happens two years from now I'm pretty certain the residency will shut down. If there are no aliens there's no point in having doctors for them."

"How much risk is associated with working with them?"

"Pretty high, I heard."

"Yes, but how much?"

"Oh, God, Melissa. Who cares? They're reactionary, unpredictable. I think that's been well established tonight."

"Because if they truly are unpredictable then why would I stay in the program? I want to make an informed decision as well. As you said this program won't last more than two years and to be a qualified physician I need at least five. Perhaps I should reconsider this decision, but I need to research more to do that."

"You should come to San Francisco with me! They have the best clubs there, and my parents would love to see you more often!"

Miranda and James ate at an upscale French restaurant in downtown Johannesburg. They talked about their family and college, how their father was doing, and where their mother would travel next. After a half an hour an uncomfortable silence settled. Finally James broached the question, "Sister, I know perhaps it's out of my place to ask, but why are US forces being deployed to South Africa?"

Miranda sighed, "I am only telling you this because you're family, because you're my brother and it is only an accident that you don't know yourself. I think part of it is obvious. As everyone knows, while most of the Prawns-"

"Poleepkwa."

"Aliens, crustaceans, whatever. We know they've spread worldwide, but the majority are still held here under the care of MNU. And we expect a strong force from their home planet to arrive in two years directly in Johannesburg, where the highest concentration is located. We expect violent force will be used which is why the strongest military in the world has a stake here, and that is why our presence is required. There is more to it though."

"Wouldn't that cover everything?"

"It covers what the public knows. The truth is deeper than that. We are actually working with the South African military to test the capabilities of our weapons."

"Wait, why wouldn't you know the capabilities of your weapons?"

Miranda sighed, "Here's a history lesson, some of which you already know. In 1982 the aliens landed here and since have been a burden to the locality. Shortly after their landing MNU took over their care, expecting that through offering good hospitality and possession of the aliens and their equipment they could gain new weapons technology. What they quickly found out was it wouldn't be so easy. To their dismay they found out that the aliens did not know how to operate any of the equipment on the ship because only the laborers survived the catastrophe that landed them here. They also found out that all the weapons were equipped with a genetically based security system that only activated with prawn DNA. On top of that the ship didn't work, they couldn't find a way to get it running no matter what experts they brought in or how much research they did. They ended up finding themselves caring for over a million prawns with no way to send them home and no new technology as a payoff. In other words, they became the wardens."

"Are you saying if the ship worked they would have sent them home?"

"Despite the harsh living conditions the prawns are in a lot of money is actually put into their upkeep. MNU has to pay for a high degree of security, for basic water, food, sanitation, and housing. MNU is actually losing money by taking care of the aliens. If they could have shipped them off they would have years ago. MNU is now breaking even by using the aliens as cheap labor for mining operations and by convincing whole nations that they are the secret to a safe coexistence with them. Governments pay MNU to have forces established and a worldwide hotline running so that if any prawns are spotted they are caught and returned to District 9. They keep researching weapons in hopes that if they can unlock them they could actually sell them and have a payoff."

"So MNU treats them like shit because it costs them so much."

"That's how corporations work. Anyways, they ended up losing a lot of money in the beginning and in 1986 they ended up going to the US Pentagon, offering to sell us weapons. They needed the money, and they gave a high price. But we saw the advantage in it and bought the offered goods. It took years to reverse engineer the fucking guns but we were able to break through. We had to come up with new theories in physics to successfully do it but in 1997 we could reproduce them and claim them as our own. MNU is full of idiots, the way they are trying to bypass the security system by doing medical experiments on the aliens. It's no surprise they still haven't gotten anywhere."

"So you're saying you've been able to use alien weapons for the past 13 years?"

"Yes, and we are now working with the military of South Africa to train our soldiers to use them and to see how powerful they are and what limitations they have."

James felt outraged, he couldn't believe it! "But, that's the whole reason why they would attack in the first place! CJ left to tell his home world that we were doing experiments on them! Who knows what MNU did to the Poleepkwa to try to gain access to the weapons! Had you shared your information with MNU that would have never happened! There would be no doomsday, apocalypse, war of the worlds, whatever looming over us!"

"Brother, you know that our nation is the most powerful, and in order to maintain that power we have to keep our technological advancements secret! To relay our advancements to MNU would mean that MNU would have sold those secrets to enemy nations. MNU must be held for their violations of ethics, not the United States."

James felt sick. His sister was telling him that America needed to do whatever it could to keep in power, even if the world turned into a cinder. He had learned one of the greatest secrets of District 9, and felt there was nothing left to the future but to despair.

End Notes: The military had Poleepkwa weapons since 1997! MNU actually doesn't want the aliens around! I hope you're surprised. AJ's rampage was totally unexpected even for me. These stories really do write themselves. Now I have to change some of the plot due to this twist of events.


	10. Other Worlds

Interlude

Author's Notes: Whaaaaaaaaaa! What is this? Am I posting something new? Am I back? I don't know. I think I may be back, so long as life gets to normal. I've been super crazy with school and looking for work and getting my own place (ALL MINE) and getting a job and everyone screaming at me to do this and that and hunting for furniture and running into stupid guys with no common sense, okay, enough with that line of thought. But the real reason why I haven't been writing is the story is about to do a major shift and I haven't been able to figure out how to tackle it. But then I started writing and I came up with something. I'm just going to start from the beginning.

Now I know this portion is short, but now that I got a predictable schedule I may be able to write more from now on. I got a table I can type on. I got free mornings and evenings while having a stable income. I think it may work. And what's coming up in the story? New characters! New aliens! New twist and turns! And the drama llama will be making an appearance and will be very dramatic with a sweet little ending to it, I think. That's what I plan anyways. Anyways, I hope my readers have stuck with me while I've been depriving you of updates. I hope you can forgive me!

In the Milky Way Galaxy there are 400 billion stars orbiting a massive black hole. Orbiting these stars are planets and asteroids beyond count with life. This life is microbial life that can only be seen by a microscope. Of these worlds encircling stars over 100,000 fell into ideal conditions for complex life. Of these planets 5,000 are at various stages of civilization, whether the civilization is advancing in technology and enlightenment or retreating into a Dark Age or oblivion. And of these 5,000 there are hundreds that have reached interplanetary range. As time passes, and as eras come and go, as planets and their species develop or decline there are always around 5,000 civilization and several hundred interplanetary worlds.

The Local Galactic Community has had its share of wars. A dominate species has colonized other worlds and claimed it as their own. They have taken developing worlds under their wing and they have learned from their mistakes. Cooperation is far better than competition, they have learned. Claiming a world for your own is forbidden even if there is no intelligent life. Time passes and civilizations can suddenly emerge out of nowhere. New civilizations always wish to be taught by a more advance species, they wish to be saved from their own disasters, and thus they must not be helped. As the ancients learned over the vast reaches of time if you help a species they become dependent. They cannot fend for themselves and must always be given help.

The Local Galactic Community established itself over 200 million years ago. Civilizations have come and gone, some destroy themselves and some slip from one millennia to another as water slides over rocks. With the accumulated wisdom powerful civilizations have arose where individuals are nearly immortal and can harvest the full power of stars. They learned the laws of the universe millions of years ago and broke the speed of light while dinosaurs still walked the Earth. They have become so timeless and so powerful that they have become content.

While humans so desperately hunt for signs of life on other worlds some of their wisest leaders insist that the hunt is useless because they think if interplanetary civilizations did exist they would have taken over long before humans arrived. But it is quite the opposite. There are so many worlds, so many ancient civilizations that they do not feel compelled to reveal themselves to humans or to claim Earth for themselves. Why Earth when there are so many worlds? They have known about Earth and the myriad of living things on its surface. They are aware of the awakening civilization. They are watching, but will not reveal themselves. They are waiting for us to see for ourselves the worlds spread out before us and for us to reach past the speed of light ourselves. Only then would they be interested in contact.

The Poleepkwa landing upon Earth was a failure of oversight.

The Poleepkwa are a new, successful species from the Andromeda galaxy. They were not from the Local Galactic Community but occasionally interacted with them. Their species civilization was 85,000 years old, enough to be well established, yet young enough to still advance and invent. They, like most civilizations, advanced slowly, innovating and expanding only as necessary. Growing from Agriculture to the atom did not take them 10,000 years, but 50,000. But advancement and growth was stable for them, so much so that as their civilization progressed so too did their evolution. Advanced civilization naturally splits its members into hierarchies and since the Poleepkwa development was so stable the classes became biological inheritance. Nobles always came from nobles, engineers and scientists always inherited their father's gifts and the laborers were always docile and strong. No class was superior to another, since they were all needed for the good of the home world, the species, and future generations.

There is no doubt that comparing the two species, Humans and Poleepkwa the Poleepkwa are indeed technologically superior. As Alexander the Great was marching onwards to India the Poleepkwa were launching their first satellites into orbit. The Poleepkwa home world is massive in size, and rich in resources that can sustain the native species almost indefinitely. It has in its orbit seven satellites and its mass is so great it increases the weight of any object by three times. However the Poleepkwa only started exploring neighboring systems a few hundred years ago. For almost two thousand years their scientists concluded that the speed of light was impossible to break and all progress in space exploration was stagnant. Once they discovered the secret to interstellar travel they have been creating a network of colonies and started spreading their sphere of influence. One thing they learned is that going past the speed of light is quite doable, however it takes a lot of energy. Since the Poleepkwa became so enchanted with traveling the stars once they learned how to reach them they suddenly ran into a problem… how to power their faster than light engines. Suddenly the home world did not have enough resources to sustain the new travel hungry economy. Huge refinery ships were created to search out for the energy source their world needed. This was the catalyst for the crash landing on Earth.


	11. Stranded Part 1

Author's Note: Holy shit! How long has it been? Wow! Do I have any readers left? I decided to add on because a reader added me to their favorite stories list. You should like this chapter! It's about why the homeworld left them stranded out there. In this story in 2009 Christopher Johnson is 56 years old. In this chapter I'm taking a step back to before the ship even left the docks, heading to the solar system. The only way humans will be involved is on a very general basis. A new character will be added: James. Yes, the cast will be getting larger. In this chapter even though Christopher and James would have different names being on their home planet I decided to stick with their Earth names because I just don't know what would be a good native name for them. Read and review!

Christopher didn't like the mission. If anything went wrong the whole ship could be stranded, or even destroyed. The elders were reaching over their heads with the well sought after prize. "Rizh, why did you recommend me for this mission? The plans for this trip are vague, it's fraught with danger."

"What is there to worry about?"

"It's illegal, it goes against the policies of the local galactic government. If something happens we would be caught and penalized in the best case scenario."

"The local galactic government has a policy against _interacting _with more primitive civilizations. We would be completely bypassing the inhabited planet. They don't even have the technology to detect a passing spacecraft."

"We would still be trespassing on restricted territory."

Rizh sighed. "Look, it's risky, but it's worth it. There is a huge deposit of the raw material for fuel on one of the moons orbiting the outermost gas giant. We could refine fuel that could last our world generations. It's worth the risk."

"What if something goes wrong? If it was in our galaxy retrieving a downed ship is easy, but not when it's two million light years away. Not only that, if we're stranded anything we do will gain the attention of the local galactic government which will take swift action. Even considering the material we would be able to refine the risk is still too great."

Rizh nodded, "it is risky, but the elders think it's worth it. They've already approved the mission. Christopher, you should go to make sure it's safe! You'll be a hero when you get back if all goes well and you can save everyone from destruction if something goes wrong! You know, I've pulled a lot of strings for you to get this opportunity. Sending a fresh graduate on such a high profile voyage is quite a risk in itself."

Christopher sighed, defeated. He was 25 years old and fresh out of engineering tech school. On his planet he was not one of the top ranking members who made the planet wide decisions. He was an engineer, responsible for maintaining stellar vessels and ensuring that they run at top efficiency. Christopher was always very serious, making sure everything went according to protocol. Rizh knew exactly what to say to encourage him to join this mission. Then again, he never guessed he would have been stranded on Earth for close to 30 years.

James whooped in the air, excited at the news. He was going to outer space! He grabbed the notice from the ship's manager and dashed down the street. Outer space! He was getting off this rock! He would be seeing stars unobscured by the atmosphere, by galactic haze. They would see aliens, real aliens as they travel outside of the bounds of their own sun and planets. He would be able to see something new and interesting every day instead of the same boring city he had been all his life. Not that there was anything wrong with his home planet. It was beautiful, ideal, pristine. Cities populated with millions dotted the surface of the giant continent while most of the surface was left for nature to maintain her own. Everything was clean, everyone healthy and happy, and it was BORING! James was fifteen, and he was tired of seeing the same streets, the same people, the same plants, the same sky. Everyone talked about the same thing, everyone ate the same kind of food and he was ready to jettison off the surface.

James would be a supervisor for the laborers on the ship. He would be making sure everyone was working together, motivated, and not slacking off. His education and job were basic, but the travel was what drew James in. They would not be stopping off at nearby planets for trade and resource gathering as they normally did. He was going to another galaxy, something that was very rare. He would be seeing species that weren't normally seen, visiting planets completely outside their local collection of worlds. Through gossip he learned that they were even breaking some laws to get to their destination. The leaders on his world made arrangements to trade some rare resources with the galaxy they were visiting. This was the excuse they used to give them access to the system they were going to. They were going to sneak into the system to get a rare resource, mine it, and then sneak out and then travel back to the home planet. It was dangerous, if they got caught they would not only lose the material they were mining but could possibly be banned from visiting the foreign galaxy again.

Not only that the local inhabited planet was populated by a strange species. The leader of the voyage recommended having no interaction with the local species. They were still developing and were just in the stages of working together despite different racial morphologies. They often shunned each other because of different skin color! They were still divided into nations and warred with each other over ideas, territories and resources. Having any interaction with them would only be hostile.

This voyage was going to be very exciting!

The trip would take only three weeks to reach their destination. Even though 2.5 earth years would be progressing outside since they were traveling past the speed of light time slowed down dramatically. The trade diversion in their trip would add a week. The layover they had at the Edui homeworld stuck with James for the rest of his life. This was exactly what he expected his travel to be like. The aliens were definitely novel. They spent their life in the ocean. The atmosphere of their space vessels consisted of salt water. When meeting aliens they went to the surface in bipedal suits to interact with air breathers. The market place was peopled by aliens far and wide from the local galaxy exchanging goods and bargaining for the best price. Some aliens were short and wispy, some were very hairy, brash and loud. One in particular that stuck to him was the Grweg. They were extremely tall, fifteen feet, and very lean. They were bipedal, but with a face stuck upon their neck stump with no discernable head. They had to kneel down to interact with any of the other aliens. James spent hours stalking them, watching them in amused wonder. He heard that the gravity on their planet was very low, allowing their form to grow so tall. They also had many species that were air born, which is why their heads were shrunken in to look at the sky with a better range. He wanted to stay there, stalking aliens and gawking in wonder at the diversity of different forms.

After a few days the Captain of the ship felt that the deceit had been performed well enough for them to set off for their new objective: Neptune.

The journey from Edui to the Earth solar system was only going to take a week, but disaster struck. Somehow, when they landed one of the officers contracted a virus. Before symptoms started manifesting it already started spreading from the officers across whole divisions. As they approached Neptune, the upper divisions started dying off. Nobody knew why by the laborers were unaffected. Maybe there was a slight genetic difference that the virus could attack in the upper strata members that the lower strata was immune to. Nobody knew if it was the air they were breathing, the water they took on board or the food they ate, but it killed every officer.

Christopher realized something was wrong when multiple people started getting sick at the same time. It seemed minor, but he instantly knew it was bad since it struck so many people. He did the only prudent thing he understood: he sealed himself up in a control module and severed the air supply. He was fortunate. The ship became crippled. Without officers controlling the ship systems it was dead in the water. Christopher could do nothing while the illness tried to take control of his body. Thankfully, since he secluded himself and cut himself away from outside systems he was not as exposed to the virus as the rest of the crew. After several days he recovered, as quickly as it struck it was gone.

Christopher tried to send out a distress signal to Ishven, 12 light years away. He was denied access. Before the captain died he disabled the distress call beacon. He decided that it was better for them to die then to expose their purpose to the local galactic government. There was not enough fuel to get them to another planet so Christopher had one option left: Earth.

The laborers grew frightened, restless when they found out all the officers were dead. The bodies were scattered across the ship. The workers were dependent upon the crew to monitor and operate the ship and without them there was fear they would not survive. Panic spread throughout the ship. James tried his best to encourage and calm his workers but they did not respect him. He may have been a supervisor, but he was too new to trust.

Christopher was able to restore vital functions of the ship and to get it to slowly move to Earth, but that was all he could manage. He was an engineer and did not have access to many of the most important systems. He tried bypassing them, but the security system kept him locked out. What could he do?

The workers were panicked, they feared that they were either going to die of starvation or get sucked into outer space. The ships resources of food and water dropped and chaos started spreading. As the ship limped over to Earth starvation started to set in.

The ship landed in the worst place on Earth, aside from the ocean. The frigid wasteland of Antartica would have been better then the turbulent country of South Africa. Had they landed in a more chaotic country, such as Sudan or Somalia the more developed countries would have transferred them to a more developed territory. But South Africa was on the chaotic cusp between developed and developing and was given full authority from more developed nations to handle the alien spacecraft as they saw fit. It was 1982 and South Africa still practiced a diabolical social structure that even the deep south of America swept away all legal remnants of in the 1960s: Apartheid. Separation of individuals in a society based on a chosen set of features.

Christopher separated the control center from the ship and buried it under the surface of District 9. After carefully concealing it from detection he went to look for shelter, food, water, the basics required for life. As he searched for resources for survival he found a species clearly not ready for an encounter from aliens. Every time he ran into a human he was met with screams, people would run away, or take on threatening postures. He was able to take over a shack and gather supplies by clearing out a supply store. Eventually he pieced together what the natives thought of the unfortunate landing.

They did not know whether to welcome the alien craft or to raise defenses in anticipation of an invasion. They decided to wait and respond in kind to whatever fashion the aliens greeted them. There was an expression of extreme hope and fear. Did they have revolutionary technologies that could take them to new worlds? Could they cure diseases? Were they immortal? Were they going to try to take over the world and enslave everyone? They were too primitive to see the simple truth: these aliens were nowhere near godlike, had no interest in destroying them, and were simply stranded. It took three months for the humans to figure it out and decide to take action.

The condition of the ship deteriorated quickly. The water supply and air circulation remained intact but food provisions ran out quickly. There was no way for the Poleepkwa to get to the surface below and could only wait for help. Since no help came they ended up fighting to survive. Starvation set in quickly, fights broke out over what little food rations were left and after three weeks people started dying. Desperate to survive those that did not starve turned to cannibalizing those who already died. After a few days the bodies became too putrid and toxic for consumption and some moved on to living targets. Aliens banded together in groups they could trust and looked for food, each other. If they could come upon a fresh body it was shared with the members, but if not they would set up traps or hunt for a target. The ship descended into hell where the only way to avoid death was eating a brother. Without the elite madness and chaos devoured the remaining workers.

James had to resort to eating his brothers himself. Thankfully he never had to kill anyone. But to be in a gang of 14 scavenging for a fresh body to fill up on, with some leaving to look for a stray Poleepkwa to feed on changed him. He felt guilt consume him, but he could only think about was survival. Survival was the only thing that mattered. For the rest of his life he would end up running, hiding, scavenging, scraping, apologizing, submitting to human torturers just to keep alive with no end in sight.

Eventually the humans realized that the aliens were not coming out with weapons loaded, or with open hands, nor was the vessel leaving. Weeks passed as the debate flew around the globe. Shared humanity tightened, questions were answered. There was indeed life on other planets, life advanced enough to travel through the great emptiness, and this raised more questions. If aliens had the means of getting to Earth why did they ignore Earth? Why did they not invade? Why did they not help? As debates on extraterrestrial intention grew more heated the decision was finally made: open the ship and find out what lay inside.

The world was horrified at what they found inside. The first thing they found was filth and bodies rotting away in the vast corridors and catacombs of the ship.

Note: I could go on and on, but let's see if you guys will be commenting on my work.


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